2 44 I November, 



MELAyOPHILA ACUMINATA De G. IX BEEKSHIEE. 

 BY W. E. SHARP, F.E.S. 



This Buprestid beetle took its place in the British fauna owing to 

 its discovery at Woking by Mr. G. C. Champion in August 1909. In 

 his record of its capture (Ent. Mo. Mag. 1909, p. 249) Mr. Champion 

 tells how he took the insect on the trunks of pines charred and blackened 

 by tire, how quickly it took to flight, and how great was the variation 

 in its size. 



Further specimens were taken in the same district during the two or 

 thi-ee following yeai-s, and it was also found by Dr. Sharp and Mr. Ford 

 in the Xew Forest about the same j^eriod. 



The similarity of the pine-wooded country round Crowthome to 

 that of Woking bad long suggested the possibility of the presence of 

 Melanopliila bere, but, so far as I am aware, it was only in 1917 that 

 its existence was actually verified by the quite accidental capture of two 

 or three specimens by one of the students of Wellington College. 



Xow, before proceeding to a relation of the discoveiy of the beetle 

 here this year, it should he premised that in this district of heather)^ 

 wastes, mosses, and woods of comparatively young pines, after periods of 

 dry, hot summer weather, fires, originating perhaps from the discarded 

 match of some careless smoker, which often destroy before they are 

 extinguished many acres of heather and young trees, are of no infrequent 

 occurrence. It was over ground so devastated by some former fire that 

 Mr. Bedwell and myself one day towards the end of last August com- 

 menced our search for J/1 acuminata. A single specimen only taken on 

 a charred pine stump by the pertinacity of Mr. Bedwell had been the 

 result of our labours, when, guided by the blue haze of distant smoke, 

 we an'ived at a spot where a fii-e was actually in progress, and there on 

 a smoking pine stump Mr. Bedwell at once detected the object of our 

 search ; others were soon seen, and there, scorched by the bm-ning peat, 

 and half choked by the blinding smoke, we added a quite novel episode 

 to our experiences of collecting beetles, for on ground on which it was 

 too hot to place one's hand, many JSIelanopliila were running. They 

 were settled, often '• in cop.,*' on pine stumps actually glowing, or flying 

 under a blazing August sun through drifts of acrid })eat smoke, as though 

 such fiery conditions completely satisfied them. Indeed, I am convinced 

 that these beetles thoroughly enjoyed a temperature too high for the 

 exi.stenee of any living thing, except a Dipteron which appeared to share 

 their habitat ; and congregated in that small area of, at the most, a few 

 acres, probably attracted by the far-reaching smell of burning peat and 

 pine stumps, were these in.sects bred and born over perhaps many square 

 xnil£3 of the rough country around. 



