Johnson and Halwert — A List of the Beetles of Ireland. 537 



communicated by Mr. J. J. Walker to the Irish Naturalist, of captures 

 of coleoptera in the counties of Cork, Donegal, and Down in the spring 

 of 1895, in which are many useful records. 



We have endeavoured to collate all the references published from 

 the earliest to the most modern, and we have also availed oiu'selves of 

 much unpublished information. In this connection we may mention 

 that Dr. E. P. Wright has most kindly placed in our hands many 

 valuable ms. notes which belonged to the late A. H. Haliday and 

 Alfred Fuiiong. Amongst these may be mentioned — a ms. list of 

 Irish coleoptera by Haliday ; also Mr. Haliday' s entomological diaries 

 for the years 1836-1840 and 1849-1854; and a copy of "Stephens' 

 Manual," with marginal notes on localities, made by Mr. Furlong. 

 By these means much unpublished information has been fortunately 

 preserved. We are indebted to Mrs. Osborne for a number of species 

 collected by the late Dr. J. A Osborne in the neighboui'hood of 

 Milford, Co. Donegal ; and to Mr. C. W. Buckle for the trouble he has 

 taken in examining and selecting specimens from this collection for 

 the Dublin Museum. 



It has been our earnest endeavour to make the list accurate, and to 

 this end we have, where possible, examined all critical species, and 

 obtained the opinion of experts thereon. For much kind help in this 

 matter we have to thank Mr. G. C. Champion, f.z.s. ; Mr. J. Edwards, 

 p.E.s. ; Mons. A. Fauvel ; Kev. Canon Fowler, f.l.s. ; Dr. Edmund 

 Eeitter, and Dr. D. Sharp, r.E.s. 



Where needful we have added notes on the habitat of the various 

 species, but we have done so only in the case of those of less common 

 occurrence, or whose habitat is obscure. It will be noticed that many 

 records have been altered, or deleted : this was more or less inevitable 

 where workers were isolated, and had little or no opportunity of com- 

 paring their specimens with reliable types, and consequently had to 

 work to a great extent from descriptions alone. 



Ireland cannot be easily divided according to natural features, as 

 has been attempted, for instance, in the case of Scotland. Under 

 these circumstances, and considering how imperfect our knowledge of 

 our native coleoptera still is, we have thought it most convenient to 

 adopt the provinces and counties into which the country is divided, in 

 order to indicate the localities of the various species. It may be 

 pointed out, however, that the four provinces of Ireland form of 

 themselves fairly good natural divisions, indicating with considerable 

 accuracy the range of northern, southern, eastern, and western species 

 in D"eland. 



