8412 



Insects. 



the leaf, and buries itself in the ground. The pupa is of a reddish brown colour. Five 

 or six hundred roots of wurzel, which I had growing in my garden this year, were 

 more or less injured by these grubs. Eoot-crops, like the wurzel, draw much of their 

 support from the air, by means of their large fleshy leaves ; and if these are injured 

 the root of necessity suffers also by the withdrawal of such support. To show the ex- 

 tent of the injury inflicted by these insects, it will be only necessary to say that many 

 leaves this year had five or six grubs in them, and that a constant succession is kept 

 up from June to September. I never observed the leaves of the wurzel to be attacked 

 before 1861, when they suffered severely, but not so much as this year. Before 1861 

 the wurzel was supposed to be safe from the attacks of all insects, and therefore a safe 

 crop. Unlike your correspondent (Zool. 7885), I had no difficulty in procuring the 

 pupa, and I have had as many as twenty at a time in a breeding-glass. I purpose 

 next near to devote some time to the study of the economy of this insect, and shall be 

 glad to furnish either eggs or pupae, or both, to any of your correspondents that may 

 desire them, and not be able otherwise to procure them. — John Ransom ; York. 



A Days Beetle-Collecting on Schehallion. — During a tour in Scotland in Septem- 

 ber last,. I stayed a few days at Rannoch, a small village on the Loch of that name; 

 but more of my time there was devoted to trout-fishing than to Entomology. One 

 very good day's sport, however, was afforded me while making the ascent of Schehal- 

 lion, which is in the immediate neighbourhood. The slopes at the foot of this moun- 

 tain, as well as the sides of the mountain itself, were thickly strewn with stones of 

 various dimensions, beneath which the whole of my captures were, with few exceptions, 

 made. The first beetle transferred to my collecting-bottle was a specimen of Ptero- 

 slichus orinomus, a species then new to me. Cychrus rostratus soon followed, and 

 beneath heath occurred Bradycellus cognatus and B. similis, the former in limited 

 numbers, the latter in profusion. Patrobus clavipes, a late addition to our list of 

 British species, now made its appearance, and was apparently of a very solitary cha- 

 racter ; for though I found upwards of a dozen specimens, in no case did I observe 

 more than one specimen beneath each stone. On ascending higher Nebria Gyllen- 

 halii was plentiful, all the examples being of a uniformly small size, having black 

 elytra and red legs, and are most probably referrible to the variety described by Mr. 

 Dawson in his excellent Monograph, p. 49. The only Staphylinus of [any rarity was 

 an immature specimen of Arpedium brachypterum, which I dug out from its stony 

 habitation. On reaching the summit, where the temperature in some places was not 

 much above freezing point, and the elevation 3600 feet, the rare Otiorhynchus mau- 

 rus, a species peculiar to the northern mountains, occurred beneath moss, in com- 

 pany with a Homalota which I have not yet determined. On descending I turned 

 up more P. clavipes, and a single specimen of its comparatively rare congener, P. sep- 

 tentrionis, another O. maurus, and a great many fragments of deceased examples of 

 the same species. My exertions were finally rewarded by the capture of a fine pair of 

 Aphodius foetid us, Fob. (alpinus, Wat. Cat.) The day selected for this expedition 

 was gloomy and the weather unfavourable, and under these circumstances my success 

 was the more remarkable. — II. Montague ; Boxley House, Stockwell, January 6. 



Captures in the North. — Among these are several rarities (other than those detailed 

 in the note above), a list of which will, I think, prove interesting to the Coleopterist. 



Carabus arvensis. Two. Rannoch. 



Calathus micropterus. Eight. In a decayed fir-slump, Blair Atholl. 

 Bembidium pallipes. Loch Tay. 



