Insects, 5179 



the case. Mr. Hey writes, " I took a good many when I first discovered this insect, 

 but having revisited the spot I find comparatively few. It is curious that for two or 

 three years I have fished the very same bog without hitting on the insect, and that too 

 in the very same spot where I found them. I believe the explanation to be that both 

 H. Scalesianus and H. decoratus, which I take in company with it, are confined to 

 the margin of the water, this being especially the case with Scalesianus : you might 

 fish for hours without taking a single one, and be treading them under your feet all 

 the time : the rain of the last month has caused the water slightly to overflow the 

 mossy grass at the edges of the ponds, and both the species above-mentioned are taken 

 by scraping the net along the grass in the flooded parts." — Id. 



Ravages committed by Otiorhynchus scabrosus on the Hop. — I have just heard from 

 Mr. Douglas that the great pest of the gardener, Otiorhynchus scabrosus, is occurring in 

 profusion in the hop-grounds of Kent, and occasioning great injury to the now 

 rapidly growing hop vine. This formidable weevil, like its conger O. sulcatus, is 

 truly polyphagous, destroying the roots in its larva state, the leaves, bark and tender 

 branches in that of imago. — Id. 



Capture of Carabus intricatus in Devonshire. — This long-wished-for insect has been 

 taken at last : it was taken quite accidentally by Mrs. Hayward, the wife of a brother 

 collector residing in Devonport, on the 18th of June last, in one of our Devonshire 

 woods, about twenty miles from Plymouth : it was lying upon the ground wounded, 

 but still living. Mrs. Hayward brought the specimen to me the following morning, 

 and I immediately recognised it as C. intricatus (for intricatus don't require any ex- 

 amination) ; once have a peep at a specimen and you will never forget it: its beauti- 

 fully cute appearance distinguishes it from all the others of the genus ; the very long 

 mandibles, palpi and legs, the deeply relieved striae of the elytra, and the very acute 

 angle to the scutellum : these points at once show it is the veritable C. intricatus. I 

 will here mention, to save speculations as to the probability of its not being that 

 species, that I am acquainted with C. intricatus, have seen those in the British 

 Museum, and have found the thorax of three specimens, two in Devonshire in Bick- 

 leigh Vale, and one in Cornwall on the cliffs at Whitsand Bay. I sent to Mr. S. 

 Stevens three years ago a thorax, which that gentleman returned to me as belongiug 

 to Carabus intricatus, so that there is no mistake about the species. The post of kill- 

 ing and setting was assigned to me; chloroform was the life destroyer, and I set it 

 upon card-board with gum-dragon : remember, whoever gets a chance to look at this 

 specimen, that it has no pin-hole, but has a longitudinal crack in the scutellum, but 

 otherwise a splendid perfect specimen ; not a tarsus gone. This capture is the most 

 stimulating of the season. It was only in this years ' Annual' the Rev. J. F. Dawson 

 wrote dispairingly of this species not having been taken for so long a period : it is at 

 least fifteen years since it was taken until now ; let us hope that Diachromus Germa- 

 nus and Chlaenius Agrorum will in fairness show themselves next spring, they being 

 in some sense colleagues of intricatus, but they must be fetched from their country 

 abode ; they will not give up a country life for a town one on their own account ; it 

 requires some strong, good-tempered individuals, to give these species a fair chance, 

 else we must not talk about their not being there : the likely stations for Germanus 

 and Agrorum have not had a week bestowed upon them since the days of the lamented 

 Dr. Leech. There is this to be said, however, that species that are common elsewhere 

 and abundant, though found here commonly distributed, are few in number in their 

 natural habitats, which, if applied to the rarer species, make their capture very uncer- 



