Insects. 1755 



white flowers of the umbel, from which a small piece of yellow 

 emerging through the surrounding "snow" would have alone enabled 

 me to detect them, had I not been aware of their habits and dealt 

 with them accordingly. The fact is, they were, in many instances, so 

 completely gorged on their floral banquet, that, drunk with excess, 

 they had been burying themselves deeper and deeper into the umbel, 

 until, gradually receding from the sight, they had sunk into a vast and 

 profound sleep entirely beneath it ; so that, in walking over the flow- 

 ers, very frequently not a Cteniopus would appear, but, on gently 

 bending them at right angles to the stalks, a yellow host, congregated 

 closely and comfortably together, might be observed below ! Mr. 

 Dillwyn records its occurrence also at Swansea, and observes that it 

 is " not uncommon on umbelliferous and other plants, and is some- 

 times very abundant on the flowers of Rosa spinosissima on Sketty 

 Burrows." Another very remarkable instance of similarity between 

 the insects of Lundy Island and Wales, is the occurrence at Tenby of 

 a Macrocnema, which I discovered at Lundy in 1844 and had con- 

 sidered it as a new species. I still think it distinct from anything 

 acknowledged as indigenous to this country, but have refrained from 

 describing it, knowing how excessively subject to variation many of 

 the individuals of that genus are, and conceiving it possible that the 

 proximity to the sea, or some other local cause, might have so altered 

 and disguised one of the well-known species, as to allow of its assum- 

 ing the present abnormal form. Be this, however, as it may, the 

 same form occurred to me at Tenby, being the only locality, besides 

 Lundy Island, which has yet come beneath my notice. 



Hydroporus jugularis is another instance of a very local insect (and 

 one which, I think, is usually considered rare) occurring profusely in 

 the two localities. And, in like manner, I might go on to enumerate 

 hosts of others (such as Sarrotrium muticum, Orobitis cyaneus, Otio- 

 rhynchus rugifrons, &c.) equally abundant in Lundy Island and Wales, 

 though searched for in vain on the north coast of Devonshire and 

 Cornwall, — but space fails me. So far indeed as my own experience 

 goes, the north coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall (and I have had 

 good opportunities of exploring them) have a Fauna, as regards Co- 

 leoptera at least, most characteristic and peculiar. Unlike the south- 

 ern coast of the same counties, and still more unlike the south coast 

 of Wales, they abound in a profusion of insects of which few localities 

 can boast. Not to mention many rarities which have occurred in few 

 or single instances, I might record, amongst a long train of others, — 

 Cicindela maritima, Nebria complanata, Chlaenius melanocornis, Pe- 



