56 [March, 



COLEOPTERA IN FLOOD RUBBISH IN THE ISLE OF SHEPPEY. 

 Br J. J. WALKER, E.N., F.L.S. 



Monday, November 29tli, 1897, will long be memorable here as 

 tbe date of one of the greatest disasters which has befallen Sheerness 

 and the Isle of Sheppey during the last century at least ; though 

 there is a tradition of a similar catastrophe, of equal magnitude, 

 having taken place about ninety years ago. On that day a severe 

 northerly gale caused the afternoon tide to rise seven or eight feet 

 above its normal level, accompanied by a heavy sea even in the sheltered 

 waters of the estuary of the Medway. Our clay-built sea walls, 

 which were much cracked and fissured by the prolonged dry weather, 

 fairly melted away before the rising waters in many places, and 

 through the breaches thus formed vast volumes of sea water poured 

 over our meadows and pasture lands. Some thousands of acres, com- 

 prising practically the whole of the low-lying part of the Isle of 

 Sheppey, were thus inundated in a few hours, and four-fifths of the 

 town of Sheerness was laid under water from one to three feet deep. 

 My own house was invaded by the flood, and I was barely in time to 

 remove my collections and other valuables from the ground floor to a 

 place of safety. 



As one result of the deluge, almost every beetle on the Sheppey 

 marshes must have been served with an unceremonious " notice to 

 quit " its winter quarters ; and the profusion of insect life in the 

 "flood rubbish " which the waters have left behind in quite embarassing 

 quantity, is such as I have rarely, if ever, seen before. Two or three 

 small bags of siftings, which were brought home for leisurely exami- 

 nation, teemed to such an extent with creeping things, that I was 

 perforce obliged to conduct the inspection of the stuff out of doors. 

 Even now, after a lapse of six weeks, the rubbish still repays exami- 

 nation, though most of the better species have gone out of it. As 

 may be imagined, the majority of the Coleoptera were of the commonest 

 description, and very few were new to the Sheppey list ; but a good 

 many interesting species (and even such bulky forms as Oarabus, 

 Dytiscus, Hydrophilus, Geotrupes, &c.) were found among the mass. 

 Some species which I had fully expected to meet with, such as Aniso- 

 dactylus poeciloides, Stenolophus elegans, &c., failed to put in an 

 appearance, and the genus Bogous (several members of which are so 

 plentiful in our ditches) was represented by a solitary example of B. 

 argillaceus. Perhaps the most interesting find was Amara strenua, 

 which was unfortunately very rare. There is a fine series of this 



