The Beetles of the Mountains 



possibly pick out of this clear pool of mountain water, 

 and two of them, L. sharpi and L. punctata, we might 

 seek for in vain elsewhere. The colour of all these 

 beetles is very similar a reddish brown or reddish 

 yellow, darker in L. longelytrata, which is often almost 

 black, and varying very much in tone in the others. 



A few beetles other than Brachelytra sometimes occur 

 in this wet moss. Here, for instance, is a shining 

 black globular insect which looks like a very large 

 Cercyon, Plate II., Fig. 10). It is one of the same 

 sub-group, the Palpicornia, distinguished by their 

 very short clubbed antennae and long palpi. This 

 species is Cyclonotum orbicular e, Fig. 8., Plate VI. 

 There is only this one British species in the genus, and 

 it is quite common in wet moss by the side of upland 

 rivers ; it is about 4 to 5 mm. long, in shape a very 

 convex oval, entirely shining black, closely and finely 

 but very distinctly punctured all over; the short 

 antennae, of which the first two joints are red, terminate 

 in a very distinct three-jointed club, the palpi black 

 and the legs rather short with flattened tibiae. 



So far the majority of the mountain beetles we have 

 met have been either carnivorous Geodephaga or semi- 

 aquatic Brachelytra; in fact, of the large groups such 

 as the Rhynchophora, or Phytophaga, there are very few 

 specially mountain forms because there is so very little 

 correspondingly specialized mountain flora, and of 

 course no trees at all. There is, it is true, one species 

 of Chrysomela, a genus of Phytophaga, C. cerealis, 

 Fig. 6, Plate B., the only known locality for which in 



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