INSECTS - 



Land's End district and the Isles of Scilly. In the Transactions of the Penzance Natural History 

 and Antiquarian Society, new series, vol. i (1880-4), E. D. Marquand gives a list of about four 

 hundred and fifty species collected in that area, and supplements it towards the close of the same 

 volume by thirty-eight more. In vol. iii of the same Transactions the Rev. John Isabell of 

 Sennen, contributes a list of about a hundred additional species, thus raising the total to about 

 six hundred. A paper by Marquand, ' The Beetles of West Cornwall,' in the Report of the 

 Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society for 1 88 1, and a list of Coleoptera from the Isles of Scilly by 

 G. C. Champion in vol. xxxiv of the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, supplemented in 

 vol. xxxv by the reprint of a Scillonian list by Fred Holmes that originally appeared in 1836 in 

 vol. ii of the Transactions of the Entomological Society, practically complete the literature of the 

 Cornish Coleoptera. 



The material for this article has for the most part been brought together by the exertions of 

 the students of the County Technical Schools at Truro, and there are few districts in Cornwall 

 in which they have not collected. The work done by Mr. A. G. Peter around Launceston, by 

 Mr. H. Thomas at Lostwithiel and the valley of the Lynher, and by Mr. F. J. Polkinghorne, 

 Mr. Joseph Tregelles, and the late Mr. R. O. Waters around Truro, has been of exceptional 

 value. The amount done by the many willing workers may be to some extent realized from the 

 fact that they have among them enabled the writer to add about eight hundred species to the 

 county list. In addition to this indispensable work by the students, the writer received invaluable 

 help from Mr. J. H. Keys of Plymouth, who has assiduously collected for years in the extreme 

 south-east of the county, and who kindly prepared an annotated list of all the Cornish species he 

 had taken. His cordial thanks are also due to Mr. E. C. H. Davies of St. Issey for local collec- 

 tions, to Mr. C. G. Lamb of Cambridge University, and to the Rev. J. Isabell of Sennen for notes 

 of captures on the north coast. 



More than sixty years ago the late Vernon Wollaston remarked that Cornwall and he 

 referred more especially to the eastern parts of the county was one of the poorest districts for 

 beetles he had ever searched. So far as the total number of individuals is concerned its poverty, 

 even in many apparently favourable localities, is still very evident to anyone who has collected 

 elsewhere. Occasionally, of course, a particular species may locally become extraordinarily 

 abundant, like Otiorrhynchus picipes about Gulval in 1878, Rhizotrogus solstitialis at Bodmin in 1892, 

 Ceutorrhynchus litura in the Land's End district in 1899, the ordinary cockchafer at Perranporth, 

 Serica brunnea at Gwythian, and Heliopathes gibbus at Bude in 1902, Cicindela campestrit on 

 St. Mary's, Scilly, in April, 1903, Carabus nemoralis about Truro, and Broscus cephalotes at Falmouth 

 in 1904 ; and in many spots one may find a plentiful and varied assortment of beetles. Still the 

 average coleopterid population falls very considerably below that of the sister-county Devon. A 

 number of beetles generally regarded as common or even abundant throughout England are repre- 

 sented in our collections by one or at most a few specimens only. On the other hand, though the 

 scarcity of individual beetles is at times monotonous, the number of species in the county must be 

 considerable, for, though the lists have no pretensions to completeness, about sixteen hundred species 

 have been collected and identified during the past seven years. Many of the species are of course 

 extremely local or of very uncertain appearance, and there seems to be no such thing as finality 

 about any of our local lists, however restricted may be the area of observation. On one particular 

 hedgebank that has been under close attention for the past six years for the purpose of furnishing 

 a biological record, a greater number of beetles not previously recorded therefrom was observed 

 in 1905 than in any other season since the completion of the first year's hedgebank calendar in 

 December, 1900. 



CICINDELIDAE 



Cicindela campestris, L. S. 1 

 - maritima, Dej. Holywell Bay, 

 near Netvjuay 



CARABIDAE 



Cychrus rostratus, L. Trebartha, 

 mostly on high ground ; 

 above Liskeard ; Trewince, 

 Gerrans ; Penzance 



1 Where beetle! that are common on 

 the mainland have been taken at Scilly, 

 their names are followed by an 'S' on 

 the list. 



CARABIDAE (continued) 



Carabus intricatus, L. Under the 

 bark of trees near Cartha- 

 martba ; two taken by the 

 Rev. G. Lupton Allen at 

 sugar, near Millook, in 1905 



catenulatus. Scop. 



nemoralis, Mttll. 



violaceus, L. 



var. exasperatus, Duft. 

 N. Cornwall 



granulatus, L. Apparently 



scarce ; Truro ; Penzance 



monilis, F. Caerhayes ; Port- 



scatho 



I8 7 



CARABIDAE (continue*") 



Carabus arvensis, F. Perranzabuloe 

 Calosoma sycophanta, L. A single 

 specimen captured running 

 along the pavement at Fowey, 

 June, 1899 

 Notiophilus biguttatus, F. 



substriatus, Wat. 



quadripunctatus, Dej. Saltasb 



aquaticus, L. S. 



palustris, Duft. 

 Leistus spinibarbis, F. 



fulvibarbis, Dej. S. 



ferrugineus, L. 



rufescens, F. St. Germans 



