67 



more prolific in varieties, generally, than others. The 

 neighbourhood of Ipswich, in our own coimtry, has 

 been cited by Mr. Curtis* as possessing this peculiarity ; 

 and I have remarked a similar tendency in certain parts 

 of Ireland. The common Haliplus obliquus, indeed, of 

 the Blackwater river, in the county of Cork, is usually 

 so dark and suflPused ia colouring, that it might be 

 almost taken for a distinct species, — its fasciae, especially 

 the hinder ones, being occasionally evanescent. 



One more example must satisfy us under this section, 

 — namely, the Harpalus vividus, Dej., of the Madeiran 

 group. So curiously is that insect afiected by the 

 nature of the areas through which it successively as- 

 cends, and that too irrespectively of heat and cold (as 

 may be gathered from the fact that its phases on the 

 shore and upland heights are well nigh coincident), that 

 it may be appropriately singled out as a concluding in- 

 stance of the efiects of those obscure local influences to 

 which we have been drawiug attention. " Ranging 

 from the beach to the extreme summits of the loftiest 

 mountains, accommodating itself at one time to a low 

 barren rock of 20 yards circumference, at another to the 

 deep- wooded ravines of iatermediate altitudes, around 

 which the clouds perpetually cling, and where vegeta- 

 tion and decay are ever rampant, or harbouriag beneath 

 the rough basaltic blocks of the weather-beaten peaks 

 (6000 feet above the sea) ; we should naturally expect, 



* Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London (Part 3. 

 New Series), p. 4. 



