29 2 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



may not have been lividus. Dr. Sharp tells me that in the New Forest district 

 this species only occurs in the salterns, so perhaps it is much more local than 

 the records indicate. It has been recorded for at least thirty-eight out of the 

 seventy English vice-counties but there is no record for either Scotland or 

 Ireland. Is it possible that H. punctatus has light- and dark-coloured forms and 

 that those of us who have come to the conclusion that it is merely a variety of 

 lividus have never examined the latter species ? The absence of records of the 

 latter from Scotland could be accounted for on the ground that in more 

 northern latitudes perhaps only the dark form of punctatus occurs ! 



With regard to the area dealt with in this paper I have included all the 

 records for West Mayo. These are, however, almost all for the district 

 covered by the Survey that is, Clare Island and the surrounding mainland. 

 Mr. Halbert visited the district in 1897 and worked Achill Island and also 

 apparently the district about Killary Harbour. 1 He however only recorded four 

 species of water-beetles, one of these being the first Irish record for Paracymus 

 nigroaeneus, discovered in flood-refuse by the Erriff Eiver, erroneously described 

 in the " List of the Beetles of Ireland " 2 as being in Galway. Mr. Stelfox 

 collected in various places besides around Clew Bay. He brought me 

 specimens from Belmullet, Bangor and Castlebar and also from Caher and 

 Inishturk, islands which are within the vice-county of West Mayo. I myself 

 have collected in both Clare and Achill Islands, in the Curraun and Achill 

 Sound district and also round about Louisburgh and to some extent in the 

 neighbourhoods of Murrisk, Westport and Newport. Aiy first visit to the 

 district was in July 1909 when I had a day or two about Achill Sound and on 

 Achill Island, spent a few days on Clare Island and a few days at Louisburgh. 

 My second visit was in March and April 1910 when I again visited Louis- 

 burgh and Achill, being about ten days in the district altogether. Two 

 projected visits had, at the last moment, to be cancelled so that various places 

 which, from a study of the map, seemed to promise good results have not been 

 touched at all. I greatly regret not having had an opportunity of properly 

 working the mountain loughs and peat-holes. Mr. Stelfox brought me a few 

 specimens from highland loughs but, excepting D. griseo-striatus from Lough 

 Aigher on Achill, there was nothing characteristic of these habitats. One 

 visit I made to high ground in the Mweelrea mountains produced a single 

 specimen of Agabus congener, the only one so far found in Ireland, but March 

 is not the time of year for that kind of work and otherwise my climb 

 produced nothing interesting. 



1 Irish Nat., vii., 1898, pp. 135 and 212. 



■ Johnson ami Halbert, Pruc. Roy. Irish Acad., 1901. 



