2682 Insects. 



become a convert to a branch of Entomology, which from my ignorance of it before 

 I rather despised : I allude to the study of Coleoptera. During my residence in 

 Northampton, I had the benefit of the advice and experience of my friend the Rev. 

 Hamlet Clark, and of constant access to his beautifully arranged and most extensive 

 collection of Coleoptera: his cabinet is indeed a library, — each drawer " contains a 

 folio volume." With my previous love for Natural History in general, and Entomo- 

 logy in particular, it was impossible that I could be long with so ardent and energetic 

 a Coleopterist without being inspired by his example ; and the result is, that I have 

 become a studier and collector of Coleoptera, and I am fain to confess that I now 

 think it a more interesting branch of Entomology than the study of Lepidoptera, al- 

 though the latter are the most showy, and most admired by the ladies. The advan- 

 tages which the study of Coleoptera has over Lepidoptera are not only derived from 

 the much greater number of the insects themselves (and consequently an increased 

 field for research) . their peculiar habits, their various localities, their beautiful struc- 

 ture, but also from the simplicity of the modes of capturing them, and the more fre- 

 quent opportunities of taking them, — for there is no month in the year when they 

 may not be found in some situation or other. In the depth of winter, even a bag of 

 moss from the woods, or of lichens scraped off oak and other trees, will oftentimes 

 afford the collector many rare insects. Coleoptera have also this advantage, that they 

 may be set out months after they have been taken, and will look as well as if just 

 captured. I have, for instance, to-day set out some beetles — both small and large — 

 which I took four months since in Kent, and they are in perfect preservation and co- 

 lour, having been kept in a tightly-corked bottle half filled with well-bruised laurel 

 leaves, which not only preserves them, but relaxes the joints of their legs in the most 

 satisfactory way imaginable. But it is high time I proceed to the object I had in 

 view in sending this communication, viz., to give an account of some of my captures 

 in Kent in the past summer and autumn, during which seasons I was staying at my 

 old abode, Kingston Rectory, which is situate between Canterbury and Dover, and is 

 a most excellent locality for the entomologist. Around it are fine woods, filled with 

 oak, ash, willow, hazel, &c. &c. ; chalk-pits, chalky banks and numerous copses 

 teeming with wild flowers, which so abound in Kent. The chief scene of my labours, 

 as far as woods were concerned, was in one of 500 acres ; and a charming wood it is ; 

 beautifully undulated, well timbered, and in places carpeted with flowers. I was 

 more successful in this wood than in any other : here I took Tillus elongatus, Rha- 

 gium Indagator, Cychrus rostratus, Leptura nigra, melanura, abdominalis and laevis, 

 Pachyta livida, Cassida nobilis and sanguinolenta, Melasis buprestoides, Ptilinus pec- 

 tinicornis, Nedyus trimaculatus and horridus (in some abundance on thistles), Poly- 

 drusus undatus (abundant), Alophus 3-guttatus, Attelabus curculionides, Apoderus 

 avellana?, Barynotus asscidii, Molytes Anglicanus and Germanus, Tanymecus palliatus, 

 Balaninus nucum, Elephas, glandium and villosus, Cryptocephalus 6-punctatus (one 

 specimen), C. Morsi (common), Chrysomela Hyperici (abundant on the St. John's 

 Wort), pallida, 10-punctata and rufipes, Campta lutea, Antherophagus pallens, Me- 

 landrya caraboides, Endomychus coccineus, Pyrochroa coccinea, and Melasoma 

 Populi. On a bank near this wood I took Plinthus caliginosus (which I also found 

 under stones around the heights at Dover) and Callistus lunatus, and last year one 

 specimen of Tetratoma ancora. On the Cistus plants, on the bank, I took Mantura 

 obtusata in some numbers. All the above (with scores of commoner ones) were taken 

 in and around this wood, which, if well worked, would, I have no doubt, be found to 



