CHAPTER III. 



The Beetles of the Mountains 



IN our survey of Upland beetles we have now explored 

 the chalk downs of the south and the moorlands of 

 the north-west ; there yet remains a more difficult 

 enterprise the discovery of those specimens of 

 Coleoptera who abide among the mountains. I have 

 already explained how in my opinion such forms belong 

 to an older race, and come of a lineage far more ancient 

 here than the species we find inhabiting the greater 

 portion of these Islands ; the moorlands gave us many 

 such species, the mountains will provide us with more. 

 Not that lowland insects never occur on the highest 

 mountains. I have before me a report of the Insecta 

 collected at the meteorological station on the summit 

 of Ben Nevis, picked up even off the surface of the 

 snow, among which are many species whose home 

 was very far from that eminence, whose presence there 

 can only be explained by the action of wind, for most 

 species of beetles that possess wings use them rather 

 effectively at some particular period of their imaginal 

 existence, rise high in the air, are carried vast distances by 

 upper currents in the atmosphere, and finally deposited 

 in situations quite unsuitable for the perpetuation of 



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