516 LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTS. 



pits, under a wood in an adjoining parish, has produced 

 me several valuable insects. Here I took Apion ebenhium, 

 Orobitis globosus, a new species of Evcesthetus, several of 

 the rarer Pselaphidte and Cholevte, and Chatophorm 

 cretifer before noticed a . I do not mean, however, that 

 all these are properly .chalk insects; but they fall into 

 these pits, where they are readily discerned, from the 

 contrast of their colours with the whiteness of the chalk. 

 By watching attentively the bottom of one, vast numbers 

 in a warm day may be taken when they fall or are climbing 

 upwards. Of all soils clay offers the fewest inducements 

 to the Entomologist, who will lose both his time and 

 labour in a clay-pit ; while in one of sand, chalk, or marl, 

 they will usually not be mispent. Vegetable earth also 

 affords a harbour to various larvge, and the pupae of 

 many nightfliers amongst the Lepidoptera, by digging in 

 it, especially under trees, may be obtained. Even the 

 bare rocks have their insect frequenters that take shelter 

 in their fissures ; and in the early part of your career 

 especially you should always turn over large stones, as 

 beneath them many of the HarpalidtE and other Eutre- 

 chma frequently lie hid : and in this situation, both in 

 Suffolk and Sussex, Lomechusa emarginata, one of our 

 scarcest Bfacfyptera, has been taken. Old trees also, 

 and planks that have laid long without being moved, 

 often afford a shelter to many of the minute Coleoptera; 

 as Pselaphidte, Aleocharidte, Cryptophagidce, Scymnidte, 

 &c. Live fences, especially when the hawthorn is in 

 blossom, and where trees are also intermixed, are attend- 

 ed by innumerable insects of almost every description ; 

 and even the black-thorn will present you with one of 

 3 VOL. II. p. 255. 



