Insects, 4655 



should say, go to the ' Moss ' and pick up all the old colton-grass heads off the ground, 

 and by so doing, Mr. Haworthana would appear in due course." — H. T. Stainton ; 

 Mounts field, Lewisham, March 3, 1855. 



Occurrence of a Water Beetle new to the British Fauna. — It gives me great plea- 

 sure to record the capture of a Hydroporus new to our native lists, — five examples of 

 the H. elongatulus, Sturm (recently determined for me by Dr. Schaum, of Berlin), 

 having been discovered by myself on Midgeley Moor, near Halifax, during July, 1852. 

 They were taken in company with H. Gyllenhalii and H. tristis in a small pond, or 

 tarn, above Hebden Bridge; and, had I recognised ihem at the time as anything 

 uncommon, I might, doubtless, have secured considerable quantities of them. They 

 are darker than the ordinary continental specimens, appearing to want the diluted or 

 piceous tinge towaids the base and margins of the elytra, which is so evident in their 

 German representatives. — T. Vernon Wo lias ton ; 25, Thurloe Square, Brompton, 

 March 6, 1855. 



Note on the Orchesia minor of British Cabinets. — The Orchesia minor appearing, 

 from its great rarity, to be but imperfectly known, not merely in this country, but 

 throughout Europe generally, a few words concerning it may not be altogether un- 

 acceptable. It appears to have been originally described by Mr. Walker (Ent. Mag. 

 iv. 83), in 1837, from a Scotch specimen found near Lanark; and subsequently (as 

 Dr. Schaum, of Berlin, informs me) by Bosenhauer, from the Tyrol, under the title of 

 0. sepicola. It seems essentially an autumnal species ; coming into being about the 

 middle of July, and lasting until September; at which time, in certain localities, 

 I have observed it in tolerable numbers. It is particularly attached to the common 

 sloe (Prunus spinosa, L.), from off the branches of which it may be occasionally 

 beaten, especially in low, damp thickets (beneath trees), on a clayey soil. Under such 

 circumstances I have captured it at Spridlington, near Lincoln, from July to Septem- 

 ber, not unfrequently ; as also at Shenton, Leicestershire (in Ambion Wood), towards 

 the end of October, in company with Phloiophilus Edwardsii, and other insects 

 of post-autumnal habits. The shuffling or skipping motion, so characteristic of the 

 genus, is carried out to such a singular extent in O. minor that, even whilst in the net, 

 it is by no means easy to secure. — Id. 



Note on the Tachyporus nitidicollis of Stephens. — It may be a fact worth recording, 

 for the collectors of our native Brachelytra, that the Tachyporus nitidicollis of 

 Stephens is a species unknown on the Continent, and one which has consequently 

 escaped notice in Erichson's Monograph of the Staphylinidae. For many years past I 

 have been accustomed to capture it in several districts of Ireland, and I had always 

 regarded it as peculiar to that country ; nevertheless, Mr. Stephens' dictum of " hedges, 

 near London " (although it is true that a single specimen only exists in his cabinet) 

 would seem to imply that it has an English " habitat " likewise. At any rate it must 

 be extremely rare on this side of the channel, since it has never come beneath my own 

 observation, nor am I aware of its occurrence in any collection except the Stephensian 

 one. In Ireland, however, it is apparently universal ; and in the counties of Cork 

 and Kerry it may be taken almost everywhere. In the vicinity of Killarney it 

 abounds, particularly, during the autumnal months, around cultivated grounds, and in 

 grassy spots beneath trees. In the neighbourhood of Kanturk it occasionally teems; 

 and in the plantations of my friend, W. Leader, Esq., of Rosnalee, it is literally 

 a nuisance. I have also met with it near Dublin ; and towards the end of September, 

 1854, it was tolerably common in the grounds of Tiiuity College. I may add that I 



