174 TRANSACTIONS LIVEEPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETt. 



down to Kerry. It is only partially represented in the 

 Welsh mountains, and some of its species occur spora- 

 dically in England. In Europe all the species occur in 

 Scandinavia, many of them on the Alps. Take two of 

 them — that large water Beetle, Dytiscus lapponicus, and a 

 smaller ground Beetle, Pelophila borealis. Both occur in 

 the extreme west of Scotland and Ireland, where they are 

 abundant, but neither in England, although in Cumber- 

 land, Yorkshire, or Wales the environment would be 

 perfectly appropriate to them. Now, it is difficult to 

 understand, if these two species formed part of the earliest 

 immigration from the south-east or east, why they should 

 be both absent from an area over which they must have 

 travelled to arrive at their present home. 



Other species, such as Car abas glabra tus and Miscodera 

 arctica do occur at suitable elevations in the north of 

 England and in Wales, while one species, Carabus clath- 

 ratus, with a general range almost as limited as Dytiscus 

 lapponicus, has been recorded from Suffolk, but there is 

 no example of a high mountain or moorland species which 

 attains a maximum in England or Wales, and thence thins 

 out north or west, such as one might have expected had 

 the original entrance of such species been from the south 

 or east at however remote a date. 



Leaving the Coleoptera however for a moment, but still 

 considering the Irish fauna, we cannot but be struck by 

 the remarkable occurrence of three species of North 

 American fresh-water sponges in the south and west of 

 Ireland, species not occurring elsewhere in Europe. These 

 were discovered by Dr. Hanitsch — a well-known former 

 member of this Society — about four years ago. 



Dr. Hanitsch himself suggests that their presence might 

 be due to the gemmules of these sponges having been 

 carried attached to the feet of birds across the Atlantic. 



