3354 Insects. 



Notes on Captures of Coleopterous Insects. By the Rev. J. 

 Pemberton Bartlett, M.A. 



It was my intention last year to have sent you a few "jottings 

 down" of my Coleopteric rambles, and of a visit I paid to the Chesil 

 Bank near Weymouth ; but a variety of circumstances have prevented 

 my doing so until now. A vacant evening, however, finds me look- 

 ing over cabinets and note-book, and the reminiscences of past ram- 

 bles o'er hill and dale inspires me with a cacoethes scribendi. 



After the very interesting paper which appeared in a former num- 

 ber (Zool. v. 1934) from the pen of Mr. Wollaston, it may appear 

 presumptuous in me to refer to my visit to the appropriately named 

 Chesil Bank ; for I take it the German word Kiesel, a pebble, is the 

 origin of the name ; and no name could be more descriptive of the 

 spot than Pebble-bank. 



It is not, I am sorry to say, to record any new captures that I refer 

 to my visit, but to add my testimony to that of other entomologists, 

 that however insects may abound in a locality one year, it is no crite- 

 rion that they will be found in like abundance another year. Perhaps 

 it was unreasonable that 1 should expect to find specimens of all the 

 rarer beetles which were taken there by Mr. Wollaston ; I did how- 

 ever hope to do so : but Hope, as is not unfrequently the case, "told 

 a flattering tale," for several which were mentioned as occurring in 

 some abundance, were not to be found at all ; while one or two which 

 in 1847 were recorded as found sparingly, were in 1850 to be found 

 plentifully. 



Mr. Wollaston considers "the height of the season" for this locality 

 to be the latter end of May. I arrived there on the 5th of June, which 

 as the season had been a backward one, might be supposed a good 

 time ; possibly, however, it was too late for some of the missing spe- 

 cies, and yet it is remarkable that Cillenum laterale, which Mr. Wol- 

 laston found " by thousands," I could not discover at all, although I 

 searched in the very same "sandy flat" described in his paper. Dys- 

 chirius thoracicus was to be found very sparingly, while Phytonomus 

 mixtus might be taken by dozens ! 



Again, Micronyx Tangermannii which, in 1849, might be "sparingly 

 picked up," was very abundant ; while of Omophlus Armeriae, which 

 in that year was "in abundance," I only succeeded in finding a single 

 specimen ! Of Licinus silphoides I took about half a dozen, and of 

 the Tychius mentioned by Mr. Wollaston, a few specimens. 



