256 The New ‘ Fowler’ and’ Yorkshire Coleoptera. 
the distribution given is complete so is the value of any work determined. 
Yorkshire is the largest county, its physical features the most varied, 
and its faunal contents most attractive from whatever point of view they 
are approached. In this Supplement only sixty odd species have York- 
shire records attached tothem. Three of these are recorded from a locality 
which is possibly not in Yorkshire at all, but in Lincolnshire, and the irony of 
it is that two of the species are fairly common throughout our county, 
while the remaining one has not, so far, been found in it at all. Of the 
others some could not very well be overlooked, e.g., Chaetocnema conducta, 
taken by Mr. Horrell at Forge Valley. The coloured figure of this species 
is very fairly drawn, but, if my memory is not at fault, the colour of the 
elytra should be somewhat warmer in shade, and the sutural line thickened 
in a peculiar manner, which is not so apparent in the plate. Another 
figure of interest to Yorkshire Coleopterists is that of Carpophilus sexpus- 
tulatus, which is grotesquely incorrect. It is difficult to believe that the 
artist had a genuine specimen before him, shape as well as colour being 
noticeably inaccurate. It is too bulky and heavy-looking, and the colour 
nowhere near the real thing. To place this figure side by side with the 
beautiful one of the same species in Murray’s monograph (Trans. Lin. Soc.) 
is to realize that in some inexplicable manner a mistake has been made. 
The text relating to this species would have been more accurate if The 
Naturalist for 1912, pp. 141-145, had been consulted. In that article I 
gave full details of all the occurrences, and showed that up to that time 
twenty-six or twenty-eight specimens had occurred in Yorkshire. In 
this Supplement the dual authors are not in agreement on the point, one 
giving the number as eight specimens, the other as ten. As shown above, 
both are wrong. One striking defect which will be apparent to others 
beside Yorkshire Coleopterists is the complete independence of each 
author’s work. This elaboration without collaboration has naturally 
produced two bad features—unnecessary repetition and contradictory 
statements. An instance of the first-named is found on page 295, where 
is a duplicate of a sentence on page 172. A Yorkshire instance of the 
second has already been referred to ; another will be found in the account 
of Bagous petvo. At page 187 we read ‘four specimens only have been 
taken since J captured mine, in company with Archdeacon Hey, on 
August 6, 1880,’ while on page 310 we find: ‘ the only British specimens 
are one taken by Canon Fowler at Askham Bog and another by Rev. 
W. C. Hey in the same locality.’ The former gives a minimum of five, 
the latter states definitely that there were no more than two. When we 
come to look into the matter more closely the confusion becomes greater. 
A note by Rev. W. C. Hey (The Naturalist for 1895, page 242) announces 
the finding of two specimens, ‘ the second and third of this species taken 
in Britain,’ and adds that Dr. Sharp, to whom they had been sent, had 
returned them named Elmidomorphus aubet. Canon Fowler, however, 
while leaving the species in Bagous decides that it does not belong to 
that genus but to Elmidomorphus, a genus very closely allied with it. 
Whatever may have been the method by which records have been 
selected for insertion, that they should increase the value of the original 
work by moditying or amplifying the distribution as there recorded seems 
to have been lost sight of. From a host of others the following instances 
are cited :— 
Blechrus maurus, ‘not found towards the north’ (1., 145). 
Atemeles emarginatus, ‘I know of no locality further north than 
Lincoln’ (II., 54). 
Prognatha quadricornis, ‘not recorded from the North of England ’” 
(II., 434). 
Dorcus parallelopipedus, ‘Church Stretton, Cheshire [recte. Shrop- 
shire]. It appears to cease further north’ (IV., 4). 
Saperda populnea, ‘ Lincoln, Langworth Wood; I know of no 
record). ©. further north wweM..ne58)e 
Naturalist, 
