Johnson and Halbert — A List of the Beetles of Ireland. 735 



here, their numerous creeping spawn, which they had loclg'd under 

 ground . . . fell a devouring the roots of the corn and grass ... to the 

 vast damage of the country. . . . High winds, wet and misting 

 weather, were extremely disagreeable to the nature of this insect. . . . 

 Duiing these unf avoui'able seasons of weather, the swine and poultry 

 of the country at length grew so cunning, as to watch under the trees 

 for their falling ; and when they came to the ground eat them up in 

 abundance, being much pleasured with the food. ... A year or two ago in 

 the summer, all along the south-west coast of the county of Galloway, 

 for some miles together, there were found dead on the shore, such 

 infinite multitudes of this vermin, and in such vast heaps, that by a 

 moderate estimate, one computed tKere could not be less than forty or 

 fiity horse loads in all. . . . This last year, 1697, they reached as far 

 as the Shannon, and some of the scattered loose parties crost the river, 

 and got into the province of Leinster, but these met with a stronger 

 army of jackdaws, that did much execution among them, killing and 

 devouring great numbers." 



M. Mppocastani, P. 



Leixstek. Mtjis^stee. 



Heath ('00 Ht. 3).— Dublin (Eoebuck, '54 Hn.).— AVicklow (Grey- 

 stones, '78 M.; Poulaphouca, '92 B.).— Wexford(Courtowii, '92 C. 6). 

 —Cork ('91 En.; Youghal, H. MS.; Bandon, '47 W. 1).— Kerry 

 (Muckross, '59 Be. ; Kenmare, Cs.). 



Locally common, but rarer than the preceding species. According 

 to Fowler it has not occurred in England further south than the Lake 

 district, and in Scotland appears partly to take the place of M. 

 vulgaris, P. Distribution — northern and central Europe chiefly, and 

 Siberia. 



Phyllopertha horticola, L. 



Ulster. Conitaiight. Leiis^siee. Munster. 

 Abundant in the south and west. The \avietj suturaUs, Steph., has 

 been found near Dingle (Ht.), and at Lahinch on the Clare coast. It is 

 smaller, and of more depressed form, with the suture, margins of the 

 elytra and humeral prominences black. 



Cetonia aurata, L. 



Ulster. Coiwattght. Lelnster. MmsrsiEE. 

 Donegal (Milford, coll. Osb. ; Slieve League, '95 T.). — Antrim 

 (Belfast, J. ; a specimen in Museum of Belf. Nat. Hist, and Phil. Soc, 



