518 LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTS. 



gravel walks; and so do many species of the genus 

 Halictus a , the habits and economy of which have been 

 so ably detailed by M. Walckenaer b : Cerceris also, and 

 other Hymenopterct) will choose such places, however 

 public, for the site of their nests or burrows. The ground 

 is so consolidated by the constant foot, that they proba- 

 bly find such situations spare them a world of labour, and 

 therefore in their choice balance one inconvenience by 

 another. 



Though the sea itself, I believe, produces no true in- 

 sects, yet there are many that constantly or occasionally 

 haunt its shores. On the sand-hills of the Norfolk coast 

 I found JEgialia globosa and Cicindela hybrida. Ceuto- 

 rhynchus horridus inhabits thistles that grow near the sea. 

 Under the Zoster a and Fuci, (cast up both on its beach 

 and the shores of estuaries,) many peculiar species of 

 Cercyoii) several Aphodii^ and numerous Brachyptera, 

 may often be found. In this situation the rare and 

 singular Bledius armatus has been taken. At certain 

 seasons of the year the beach and environs of the sea are 

 covered by many species of Coccinella, which seem to 

 bend their course thither from the inland country, as if 

 they were about to emigrate c . When the weather is 

 fine and the tide begins to retire, at the line of its 

 highest rise I have taken on the eastern coast a variety 

 of insects, and amongst the rest Anomala Frischii. The 

 inundations of rivers, except in the depth of winter, 

 always bring a number of these little creatures, which 

 float on the surface on bits of stick, weeds, &c. ; and 

 where they deposit these articles when the water begins 



a Melitta **. b. Mon. Ap. Angl. i. 138. 



b Memoir es sur le genre Halicte. c VOL. II. p. 9. 



