The Beetles of the Mountains 



they are all much less rare in the clear becks and rivulets 

 of the mountains. 



Among these stones by the brook side we ought 

 not to be long before we s.ee one of our true Alpine 

 beetles, that is, Nebria gyllenhalii, Fig. 15, Plate VI. 

 (named after Gyllenhall, the great Swedish coleopterist). 

 This is exceedingly like one of our commonest lowland 

 beetles, one that we have already captured and named, 

 Nebria brevicollis (see Plate II., Fig. 13). The differences 

 between the two species, although quite constant, are 

 very slight ; if they are placed side by side it will be 

 seen that N. gyllenhalii is rather smaller and quite 

 distinctly of a more slender shape, and that whereas in 

 N. btevicollis the antennae and the tibiae of all the legs 

 are more or less reddish, in N. gyllenhalii these parts 

 are normally quite black. We have already (see p. 36-37, 

 Part I.), referred to the other species of Nebria, and 

 pointed out how, out of the four which we possess, one 

 is exceedingly abundant everywhere, and the other 

 three all singularly restricted in their distribution. 



But as we continue our ascent there are two species 

 of that genus of large Geodephagous beetles of which 

 we have already met with two or three representatives, 

 viz., Carabus, which we shall probably encounter. 



One, known as Carabus glabratus (the Smooth Carabus), 

 Fig. i, Plate B, is a large smooth, nearly dead-black 

 insect, 22 to 24 mm. long, that is quite as large as either 

 C. violaccus or C. nemoralis, but of a longer oval in shape 

 and much smoother surface than any other British 

 Carabus, the colour black, with just a hint of dark blue, 



61 



