The Beetles of the Downs 



elytra are dull black and the thorax, antennae and 

 legs reddish-yellow, and we are exceedingly likely to 

 find it under one of these flints ; then there is C. ciste- 

 loidcs, also a common beetle very similar to flavipes, 

 but much larger (9 to 12 mm.), also entirely black. 

 The other four species are not so generally distributed 

 one brownish yellow, C. mollis, occurs on sandhills by 

 the coast ; another, C. fuscus, also brownish, is also a 

 a shore species, but much rarer, C. micropterus, of a 

 rather darker brown, is to be found on moors and 

 mountain sides among heather, and C. piceus, another 

 black species, in woods under logs and fallen branches. 

 So far we have met with only beetles of the group 

 Geodephaga, under these stones, and if we went on turning 

 over all the large flints on the long slope of the Down 

 we might meet with several more interesting and 

 perhaps rarer species. But there are other methods 

 of collecting which may enable us to discover beetles 

 of other groups ; usually there is something to be 

 got out of the thick moss which carpets the more 

 exposed slopes, and then there are those quiet hollows 

 and sheltered folds or some deserted chalk pit, where 

 grows the special cretaceous flora, the thick masses 

 of the viper's bugloss with its small blue flowers, the 

 yellow St. John's wort, the clustering wild marjoram 

 and rock rose, and here and there perhaps tall spires 

 of mullein and clumps of scrophularia or pale blue 

 succory. Surely out of all these some beetles can be 

 dislodged by the sweep net. Let us try this viper's 

 bugloss to begin with; two species we are pretty sure 



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