1890.] , 35 



ON THE COLEOPTERA FOUND IN A SMALL MOSSY BANK AT 

 KNOWLE, WARWICKSHIRE. 



BY W. G. BLATCH. 



Believing that few if any other Coleopterists have ever tried the 

 experiment of working persistently at one particular spot of ground, 

 with the view of ascertaining how many species could be obtained 

 from it, and most of" my beetle collecting this year having been carried 

 on in strict accordance with such an idea, it has occurred to me that 

 a short account of my experiences might prove interesting, if not 

 useful, to the readers of the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. 



Near the end of last March I discovered at Knowle a small mossy 

 bank which, after a few trials, seemed sufficiently promising to be 

 worth operating upon continuously. Here I plodded on through 

 April and May, and again in October and November, with an occasional 

 raid during the summer months, meeting with an amount of success 

 which, to me, seemed astonishing. Altogether this little bank has 

 yielded 412 species of Coleoptera, many of them in great abundance ; 

 some twenty of these were new to my collection, or had not been 

 previously taken by myself in any other locality, and eighteen or 

 nineteen of them appear to be additions to the Midland List. If we 

 reckon that there are 3250 species of beetles inhabiting Great Britain, 

 it will be seen that this tiny spot in the centre of England has pro- 

 duced about one-eighth part of the whole number hitherto found in 

 England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. 



Although, at first sight, there seems to be nothing peculiarly 

 striking about this bank, I have satisfied myself, by careful study and 

 enquiry, that it presents certain features which, to some extent, 

 account for its phenomenal richness. It is situate in the middle of 

 an extensive patch of Keuper Marl, and is surrounded by a con- 

 siderable area of country which was unenclosed until within the last 

 forty or fifty years. Erom Knowle (407 feet above sea level) and the 

 adjacent district there is a gradual fall towards the field which con- 

 tains the bank in question, and sundry streamlets flow from the higher 

 ground and merge their waters in the hollow at the bottom, known by 

 the suggestive appellatiou of " Eotten Eow." Being always wet, even 

 in the driest season, this land produces a flora of great variety and 

 rankness. The owner informs me that it has been in continuous 

 pasture for more than 200 years, and that previously it formed an 

 inaccessible bog which was with much difficulty drained by one of his 

 ancestors. During a considerable part of every year these meadows 



