1868.] 



141 



about two inches in length, the upper one containing at least twenty eggs, laid 

 with great regularity in spiral lines round the sides of the chamber, each against a 

 slight depression in the rotten wall, about one-eighth of an inch from its neighbour, 

 and carefully packed round with frass. The centre of this branch contained only 

 frass, and no eggs, and its entrance fi'om the main burrow was packed with frass 

 for about three-sixteenths of an inch, as a plug or stopper. The lower branch con- 

 tained twenty or thirty larvae, which had been hatched for several days, and had 

 commenced to bore into the wood : they had not at all disturbed their bed of frass. 

 The $ beetle, still alive, occupied the main burrow, but the S was not to be found. 



Sinndendron evidently only attacks wood that is really rotten. I have found 

 it boring into poplar and beech, as well as ash. 



The eggs are white and opaque, ovoid in form, one-twelfth of an inch in length, 

 and one-twentieth in diameter. — T. Algerjson Chapman, Abergavenny, July, 1868. 



Dytiscus lapponicus in Ireland. — I have pleasure in recording the capture, for 

 the first time, of Dytiscus lapponicus in the " Emerald Isle." During last August 

 I spent several days in the " Wilds of Donegal," where a combination of sceneiy, 

 on the one hand of the wildest grandeur, and on the other of the bleakest desola- 

 tion, may be found, perhaps unmatched in the three kingdoms. The possibility of 

 finding a slug (not a Limax) in one's hat seems very much to have prevented 

 tourists and even naturalists from visiting its romantic cliffs. After a drought of 

 three months I was not surprised to find insects of all kinds scarce. There is no 

 sort of country which is so much injured entomologically by long want of rain as 

 treeless moorland and mountain-side. The very peat-holes, the loved abode of 

 Hydropori, were dried up. During my visit, however, the weather broke, and, oh ! 

 such rain ! 



The loughs and tarns of Donegal are innumerable, but nearly all are so 

 stocked with trout, that beetles have a hard lot. Having searched several tarns 

 without success, I ceased to expect anything ; but happening to pass a small one 

 from which no stream seemed to issue, I gave a passing look (having no net at the 

 time) for any signs of entomological life. My sm-prise was gi-eat when, at the first 

 glance, a Dytiscus came paddling towards me, and was at once recognised as lap- 

 ponicus. He was speedily secui-ed with the hand (for he was quite unsophisticated), 

 and a regular hunt commenced. I was rewarded ere long with a good number. 



Next day, through a perfect "tempest torrent whirlwind" of the elements, I 

 returned with my net, and, amidst the sohtude broken only by the hiss of the wind 

 along the mountain side, the rattle of the rain-drops on the surface of the water, 

 and the roar of the Atlantic on the cliffs below, I spent several hours hunting, 

 being up to the knees in water. Success, howevei', sweetened all disagreeables. 



I was much struck by the very close resemblance between the appearance of 

 D. lapponicus, while at rest at the bottom, and the half- withered leaves of Pota- 

 mogeton natans. The yellow striae on the elytra of the fi-eshly emerged males 

 almost exactly mimic the venation of the leaf. Doubtless this has frequently saved 

 them from the attack of herons and gulls. 



As I once before noticed (Ent. Monthly Mag., March, 1868), the females were 

 very much less numerous than the males, being in the j proportion of 1 to S.^The 

 only other beetles I observed in the tarn were Acilius sulcatus, Gynnus natator and 

 Q. raimitus : the last was very abundant. 



