1236 Insects. 



Dr. Harris says that it lays its eggs on the caterpillars of butterflies, but I believe that 

 it more often pierces the chrysalis while yet soft.— Francis Walker ; Grove Cottage, 

 Southgate, December, 1845. 



Distribution of the species of Harpalus and Ophonus. — In the neighbourhood of 

 Leicester we find but four species in all, of the genera Harpalus and Ophonus ; which, 

 considering there are no less than sixty-three recorded as indigenous to Britain, seems 

 to indicate a strange deficiency in some of the local circumstances favourable to their 

 existence. * The species are Harpalus limbatus, aeneus and ruficomis, and Ophonus 

 punctatissimus, and of these H. limbatus and 0. punctatissimus are rare and local ; the 

 latter shewing also, a great deterioration in the size and condition of the individuals. 

 The causes of this are to be sought I think, chiefly in the nature of the soil of the dis- 

 trict ; which, — excepting in the immediate neighbourhood of the sienitic rocks of 

 Charnwood Forest, where, being the powderings of those old, weather-worn cliffs, it is 

 light and sandy — consists of stiff clayey earth and the marls of the new red-sandstone. 

 The Geodephaga are peculiarly the creatures of the soil, and are influenced by it per- 

 haps more than any other tribe of insects. Here, in the winter they are unable to bur- 

 row or find a genial abode for their hybernation in the earth, and the peculiar species 

 that do flourish here, as the Agona and other damp-lovers, retire to the bark and roots 

 of willows. On the light sandy and chalky soils of the South of England the Harpali 

 and Ophoni have their metropolis : last May, during eight days research in the Isle of 

 Wight, I took at least twenty distinct species of these two genera, which number has 

 been much increased by the Rev. Mr. Dawson of Ventnor, and they were the common- 

 est insects. The most conspicuous were Harpalus serripes, tardus, anxius, thoracicus, 

 cupreus, azureus, rubripes, marginellus, fulvipes, annulicornis and Ophonus obscurus, 

 nitidulus, azureus, punctatissimus and puncticollis. The Harpali are very sensitive of 

 cold, the gentleman above-named notices that on colder days, even in August and Sep- 

 tember, they burrow to the depth of several inches in the sand. The proximity of the 

 sea, I think is not a cause of any great influence in the distribution of these insects, as 

 I am told there exist but three species even in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, and the 

 neighbourhood of Hertford in a cultivated country appears to be almost as rich as the 

 broken, rough and sunbaked shores of Dover and the South coast of the Isle of Wight. 

 The distribution of insects in Britain, and the laws which govern it have certainly not 

 been much studied with us, although it is true that our Island forms but a northern por- 

 tion of a greater Zoological province, yet the relative peculiarity of the productions of 

 the south from those of the north, will perhaps hereafter be found to be much greater 

 than was suspected. The fashion has been almost universally, to append a list of 

 localities to a species without any distinction between its rarity in one place and abund- 

 ance in another, or inquiry how far different local circumstances affect its habit or con- 

 dition. A species is originally discovered, prolific for instance, in the low country of 

 the " Bedford level." Afterwards a few individuals may be taken in Norfolk, Suffolk, 

 or the " London district,'' or a starved specimen in Wales or Scotland. These 

 habitats are then strung together without any distinction, and the purposes of science 

 are not served. Entomology may supply facts towards generalizations on the subject 

 of geographical distribution of great importance to science at large, and such researches 

 are pursued on the continent with some fruits, if we may judge from Dr. Erichson's re- 

 port in his ' Archiv.' (Translated and published by the Ray Society.) — H. Walter 

 Bates; Leicester. November ]9th, 184"). 



