3704 Insects. 



Notes on the Coleoptera of Whittlesea Mere. By the Rev. Hamlet 

 Clark, M.A., Curate of All Saints, Northampton. 



The name of Whittlesea Mere has long been to the entomologist a 

 household word, suggestive of many of our most rare and beautiful 

 insects : it is now, alas ! only a name ; where once it was, farm- 

 houses are being erected, and crops are being gathered in. The 

 "willow-tree," once the land-mark to the coleopterist, as indicat- 

 ing the metropolis of entomological rarities, still exists ; but only 

 as a shelter for turkeys, and the other feathered accessories to the 

 adjoining farm-yard : the clumps of rushes, at the roots of which Mr. 

 Dawson, in 1847, captured the rare Dromius longiceps and the new 

 Trechus incilis, are supplanted by healthy turnips : while the whole 

 district is so changed, and in process of such thorough cultivation, 

 that a very few years must effect the extinction of many of the pre- 

 sent fen species of insects. However, it may be interesting to record 

 the results of an entomological visit to the neighbourhood ; the more 

 so, on account of the physical metamorphosis to which it has been 

 subject. 



With a view of investigating as fully as we were able the remaining 

 Coleoptera of the district, my friend Mr. Wollaston and myself took 

 up our quarters on the 4th of August, at the Railway Inn at Holme, 

 which has the triple advantage of being close to the station, close to 

 the best entomological ground, and tolerably comfortable. The wea- 

 ther during the week of our visit was anything but propitious ; heavy 

 showers of rain continually prevented the use of sweeping-nets : we 

 nevertheless, by dint of assiduous working, managed to capture and 

 set up nearly three thousand specimens. The following list, contain- 

 ing some of our captures, may I think be considered a fair represen- 

 tative of the autumnal Coleoptera of the locality. 



Odacantha melanura. Occasionally at the roots of herbage. 



Dromius imperialis. One specimen, by sweeping. 



Dyschirius aeneus. On mud by railway-cuttings, Mr. Wollaston. 



Loricera pilicornis. Abundant. 



Panagacus crux-major. Occasionally at sides of Lode and railway. 



Agonura Thoreyi. One specimen, by examining bundles of colts' - 

 grass. 



„ gracile, picipes, and parumpunctatum. 



Olistophus rotundatus. Sparingly. 



Platyderus ruficollis. 



