The Coleoptera of Bishopdale, Yorks. 417 
Ernesti, Elniis eneus, Anacena globulus (quite black form), 
‘Limnebius truncatellus, and, under half-submerged stones, 
Platambus maculatus. 
Proceeding further up the valley, and following one of the 
affluents of the main stream where it comes down steep and, 
turbulent, from the high fells, we can investigate those semi- 
aquatic Brachelytra whose home is the thick wet moss that 
clothes the boulders over which the water rushes or trickles. 
And perhaps few methods of collecting beetles are on a hot, 
summer’s day, more enjoyable than this. High up among 
these solitudes, where, beside the voice of rushing waters, the 
only sounds that break the silence of the hills is the wail of 
the Curlew and the bleat of sheep on distant fells, too high for 
alder or sallow, and too steep for the vegetation which en- 
cumbers the lower reaches of the stream, one makes a little 
basin of carefully-arranged stones, and then, stretched at full 
length on the short warm turf by the water’s edge, tears off 
the dripping moss which grows thick on the great stones and 
rocks over which the water runs, and, holding it submerged 
beneath the cool water of the little basin one has made, pick 
out with a small paint-brush the beetles as they come floating 
to the surface and transfer them to the laurel bottle. So here 
we took Didnous cerulescens, Stenus guynemert, Quedius 
umbrinus, Homalota elongatula, Gnypeta cerulea, and every 
British species of Lesteva except those recent additions to our 
list, the southern L. fontinalis and the Hebridean L. luctuosa. 
It was perhaps a little late for Q. auricomus, a beetle always 
to be found in such a habitat earlier in the year. These 
“submerged moss’ beetles are a small group very specialized 
in their economy, mostly of northern range, but they are 
generally common in Wales and extend into Devonshire. 
There remained only to examine the much thicker moss 
which grows in the boggy hollows of the little ravine excavated 
by the stream. This one has to pull in pieces over a folding 
sieve—an almost indispensable part of the coleopterist’s outfit. 
In this way were taken Myllena brevicornis in numbers, 
Lathrobium punctatum, Quedius attenuatus, Othius myrme- 
cophilus, and, very commonly, Homalota islandica (erenuta 
Brit. Cats). Here also was taken Arpedium brachypterum, a 
species usually attached to much higher elevations. 
Little else remains to be told. One should, perhaps, mention 
Hylesinus crenatus, found in a rotten ash-tree lower down 
the valley, and an odd specimen of Throscus obtusus swept 
up on the way back to Thoralby. Fungus of any kind was 
singularly scarce, even in the woods, and the only beetle that 
allowed itself to be recorded therefrom was the very common 
Cis bolett. With further time more might doubtless have been 
discovered in these woods by careful examination of bark and 
1913 Dec. 1. 
