338 Insects. 



tained all the activity of the larvae when touched, but otherwise they remained at rest 

 in one part of the leaf, which just there had an inflated appearance. I brought home 

 with me several of the leaves, and on the 26th of June the perfect insect emerged by 

 making an aperture in the leaf. The leaves of the beech, I observed, had been at- 

 tacked in a similar way, and to as great an extent, but the depredator had escaped 

 from his cover. I beat a great number of Orchestes Fagi from the trees, and have no 

 doubt they had done the deed." — * The Entomologist,'' p. 157. 



Note on the blighted appearance of the Oak Trees. — 



" Nudaque ramosae tendebant brachia quercus." 

 A brief postscript to my last communication respecting the withered appearance of the 

 oak and ash trees in Yorkshire this summer. I was in the neighbourhood of Thirsk 

 a short time since, when the same fact was pointed out to me by a lady, as having 

 been observed by her, and it was indeed as apparent there as here. The oak trees 

 now, however, have assumed a new foliage in repair of their previous deficiency ; and 

 the light yellow and dark green leaves present a singular and striking contrast. Until 

 lately it would have been hard to meet with a tree offering anything like a hiding- 

 place for King Charles, had he had the fortune to have lived a couple of hundred years 

 later than he did, though in that case I hope he would not have needed one for that 

 purpose. 



" A song for the oak, the brave old oak 

 That stands in his pride alone ; 

 And still flourish he, a hale green tree. 

 When a hundred years are gone." 

 — Francis Orpen Morris ; Crambe Vicarage, September, 1843. 



Notes on the British species of Carabus. Though several of the species of Carabus 

 are so generally distributed through England, as to be reckoned among our common- 

 er Geodephagous insects, I think it will be found on investigation that even these are 

 in some measure local, or occur in far greater numbers in some districts than in others. 

 Thus, Carabus violaceus, which is by far the most numerous in South Gloucestershire, 

 is much less frequent near Oxford than C. nemoralis and C. cancellatus, the latter of 

 which is of rather rare occurrence in the former locality : while C. catenulatus, which 

 Stephens and other writers describe as abundant, is (as far as my experience goes) very 

 sparingly distributed in the midland counties, where I do not think I have taken a 

 dozen specimens in all. C. monilis, though not plentiful anywhere, seems to be very 

 generally distributed throughout England and Ireland : I think it is in some measure 

 a southern species, as I have found the specimens from the southern coasts, particu- 

 larly from Cornwall, larger and more brilliant in colour, as well as more numerous, 

 than in the more northern and inland districts. About Oxford, C. nemoralis is deci- 

 dedly a vernal species, and crushed specimens are found, literally in hundreds, about 

 the paths, in April and May. C. cancellatus is later in its appearance, and more noc- 

 turnal in its habits, and hybernates in considerable numbers under the bark and at the 

 foot of the trees in Christchurch meadow — a tract which, being surrounded by water 

 on three sides, and by buildings on the other, is almost 2i preserve for Coleoptera, and 

 aff"ords many species not elsewhere common in the district. In the August evenings 

 1 have found numbers of this species on a particular part of the foot-path between Ox- 

 ford and Ililey, which then swarms with young toads just emerging from the tadpole 

 slate, on which llic Carabi were busily preying. Several specimens of Goerius olens 



