220 [October, 



COLEOPTEBA, &c., AT CHIPPENHAM AND WICKEN FENS. 

 BS" J. J. WALKER, R.N., F.L.S. 



Tke beautiful weather which prevailed during the meeting of the 

 International Congress of Zoology at Cambridge tempted some of the 

 entomologists present to embrace the opportunity of doing a little 

 work in the field ; and to the kindness of Mr. Gr. H. Yerrall I owe 

 my first experiences — and very pleasant, too, they were — of collecting 

 in the Fen District of Cambridgeshire. 



On August 24th a party, consisting of Mr. Gr. C. Champion, the 

 Eev. H. S. Gorham, and myself, started from Newmarket for Chip- 

 penham Fen, under the guidance of Mr. Verrall and his nephew. 

 A.n hour's drive brought us to our destination, and the first sight of 

 this beautiful little fen, almost entirely surrounded by woodland, with 

 its dense and luxuriant vegetation, and its wealth of rare and local 

 plants, gave sufficient promise that its Coleopterous productions would 

 rival, if not excel, its already well known Lepidopterous riches — a 

 promise which was fully borne out by the result of several hours of 

 steady collecting. 



Sweeping in the open fen produced a considerable variety of 

 beetles, among which the brilliant scarlet Anthocomus rufus, Herbst 

 {sanguinolentus, F.), was the most abundant and conspicuous, occurring 

 chiefly on flowers of Spircea ulmaria, Angelica sylvestris, and the rare 

 and local Umbellifer, Selinum carvifolium, which grew in profusion in 

 several places. We also obtained in this way Amara spinipes, Meli- 

 getlies umhrosus and M.fulvipes, Galeruca viburni (not uncommon on 

 Viburnum opitlus), G. lineola, ApJitliona lutescens, Longitarsus cas- 

 taneus, L. lycopi, and L. WaterJiousei, Gassida vihex, Mordellistena 

 hrunnea, Apion vicinum (not rare on Mentha), Sihinia primita, An- 

 thonomus comari, Or chest es pratensis, &,c. ; and in paths in the wood, 

 Phytohius Waltoni, Geuthorrhynchus melanostictus (not rare on Lycopus 

 europcdus) , Sylesinus oleiperda, &c. Apion simile turned up in some 

 numbers on the birch trees bordering the Fen, with a few Deporaus 

 megacephaliis ; and Sylesinus crenatus was taken walking on the trunk 

 of an ash tree, the bark of which was much riddled by its burrows. 



In heaps of damp decaying herbage and grass we obtained three 

 specimens of Staphylinus fulvipes, along with such ordinary species as 

 Stomis, Cryptobium, Scydmcenus hirticollis, Silpha atrata, var. hrunnea, 

 Farnus amiculatus, &c. 



On and about a decayed ash stump in the wood we found more 

 than a dozen Platycis minuta ; and in very rotten stumps of birch, 



