Insects. 1285 



Aphodius foetens is remarkably abundant throughout the whole dis- 

 trict. They appear, when the sun is hot, to be more active on the 

 wing than any other species of the genus, alternately flying for a short 

 distance and then settling. At Tenby I observed this particularly, 

 where I sat one day on a sand-hill to watch their evolutions, and 

 where I might have captured hundreds without removing from the 

 spot. They always returned to the place from whence they started 

 and never wandered far ; flying very rapidly, and, in many instances, 

 whirling in a circle round their centre of attraction. In the same lo- 

 cality also haBmorrhoidalis occurs in profusion. Another species 

 which is very common throughout the south of Wales, is Aphodius 

 nitidulus (identical with ' Scarabseus ictericus ' of Paykull), an insect, 

 which in other localities, is generally, I believe, looked upon as rare. 

 Along the whole sandy district from Swansea to Tenby it may be lite- 

 rally said to abound, occurring, as Mr. Dillwyn rightly observes " par- 

 ticularly on the sea-shore." Inland it is considerably rarer ; neverthe- 

 less it occurs occasionally. I took it during a flood in the Vale 

 of Towey near Caermarthen, but very sparingly. I suspect it does not 

 exist on the opposite coast of the British Channel, having never 

 observed it in any part of the north of Devon in Cornwall, nor even in 

 Lundy Island, where so many of the Welch insects are found. In 

 company with it rufescens, merdarius, ater, and marginatus were 

 particularly abundant. 



In the Vale of Towey the only ones which occurred in any profu- 

 sion were obscurus, nigripes, merdarius, and erraticus. The last I 

 shall refer to is one which has always been looked upon as one of our 

 rarest species, — viz. plagiatus, which, from a note in Mr. Stephens's 

 1 Illustrations,' it appears " was first taken near Wisbeach in Cam- 

 bridgeshire, and subsequently during a flood in the marshes at Peter- 

 borough by Mr. William Skrimshire." It was exactly under the same 

 circumstances as in the latter case that I was fortunate enough to meet 

 with it at Tenby. During a flood on the 9th of August I might have 

 taken hundreds in the marshes to the west of the town towards 

 Penally, where the small river flows into the sea; although even there, 

 it was only in one particular spot that it was to be found. It is a cir- 

 cumstance worth noticing, that the form which is looked upon by the 

 continental naturalists as the variety, is in England evidently the 

 typical one, — for out of about sixty specimens which I captured, only 

 two possessed the conspicuous red dashes on the elytra which are con- 

 sidered abroad as the almost invariable accompaniment. Amongst 



