A HISTORY OF KENT 



Apid« {continued) Apid^ [continued) 



Bombus hortorum, L. Common everywhere Bombus pomorum, Panz. Very rare. Deal 



„ race subterraneus. Common (Smith) 



„ „ var. harrisellus. — lapidarius, L. 1 ^ , 



" " ^ • T >• Common everywhere 



Common — terrestris, L. J ■' 



— jonellus, Kirb. Martin (Sladen), JVych- „ race lucorum, Sm. Common 



ling (Norton) Apis, L. 



— pratorum, L. Common everywhere — mellifica, L. Common everywhere 



COLEOPTERA 



Beetles 



There is no county which is richer in Coleoptera than Kent. This 

 is due to its geographical situation and physical features. Within its 

 confines we find nearly all the conditions that are most productive of 

 beetle life — mud flats, salt marshes, brackish ditches with abundant 

 water plants, chalk cliffs, sandhills and stretches of seaweed covered 

 beach, and inland woods and undisturbed park land with plenty of 

 decaying trees ; while over and above all these is the luxuriant vegetation 

 and flora of the ' Garden of England.' On the north runs the great 

 estuary of the Thames, and from its right bank the deep estuary of the 

 Medway penetrates inland for miles, while from Whitstable to Dunge 

 Ness runs a varied coastline, including some of the best collecting 

 grounds in the kingdom, such as the Isle of Thanet, Pegwell Bay, and 

 the classic localities of Deal sandhills and Folkestone warren. Among 

 inland localities we may mention Birch and Darenth Woods, which have 

 been worked by collectors for more than a century, and which have been 

 as productive of rarities as the New Forest itself If the New Forest 

 has given us Anthaxia nitidula, Darenth Wood has yielded the equally 

 beautiful Agrilus biguttatus in numbers ; and if the New Forest and sur- 

 rounding district has produced species not found elsewhere in Britain, 

 Kent can lay claim to the same distinction. We need only mention 

 Harpalus cordatus, Stenolophus elegans, Brachida ?iotha, Lafigelandia anoph- 

 thalma, Cis bilamellatus, Lixus bicolor^ Apion lavigatum, A. semivittatum 

 and Baris scolopacea, and perhaps we ought to include the brilliant 

 Rhynchites bacchus, of which authentic specimens appear to have been 

 taken in Birch Wood at intervals from 1795 onwards, although now it 

 seems to be extinct in Britain. 



The extraordinary productiveness of the district around the Medway 

 is shown by Com. J. J. Walker's list of the Coleoptera of the Rochester 

 district, which only comprises a six-mile radius round Chatham and 

 Rochester. This list contains over sixteen hundred species, or nearly one 

 half of the British Coleoptera. Com. Walker has thoroughly worked the 

 northern part of the county, and he would doubtless have compiled the 

 list of Kentish Coleoptera but for the fact that he is absent on duty in 

 Australian waters. I take this opportunity therefore of acknowledging 

 the use I have made of his valuable catalogue, and also of thanking Mr. 



^ A single specimen of this insect has been recorded from the Portsmouth district, but this may 

 possibly have been in error. — W. W. F. 



122 



