The Irish Naturalist. 



February, 



COI.KOPTERA AT I.OUGH NEAGH AND AT 

 PORTRUSH. 



BY PROF. T. HUDSON BKARK, F.K-S. 



I SPKNT a portion of my Easter holidays in the north of 

 Ireland in 1904, crossing over from Stranraer to I^arne on the 

 morning of Wednesday, April 20th, and returning home by 

 the same route on Tuesday, April 26th. The weather was 

 mild, but very stormy, and on Sunday, the 24th, a perfect 

 hurricane blew at Portrush all day ; vegetation was on the 

 whole more advanced than it had been at Dumfries, where I 

 spent a few days prior to crossing over. 



On the afternoon of Wednesday, the 20th, I had a hurried 

 run out to Antrim, and obtained permission to walk through 

 the grounds of Antrim Castle ; on the shore of Lough Neagh 

 I found Pelophila borealis, Pk., fairly common under stones on 

 the flat muddy beach, and with it Elaphrics ripariuSy L,., and 

 Ancho77iemis marginatus, L,., in abundance, and Be77ibidium 

 la^npros^ Hbst. I only had about half an hour at my divSposal 

 owing to the necessity of catching the train back to Belfast. 



On the 2ist, we went out by train to I^urgan, and drove 

 from there by car to Ardmore Point on Lough Neagh ; in spite 

 of the strong wind, it was a fine spring day. On the shores 

 of the lough, under weeds thrown up by the waves, the fol. 

 lowing were taken : — Pelophila borealis, Pk., again fairly com- 

 mon ; A7ichoinenus 77iargi7iattis, L-j A. parumpU7ictatus , F., 

 Be7nbidiu77i littorale, 01., B. biptmctatum, and one specimen 

 of Silpha dispar, Hbst. 



The morning of Friday, the 22nd, was spent in the journey 

 to Portrush, and as the afternoon was wet, collecting was not 

 possible. The greater part of Saturday was devoted to a drive 

 to the Giant's Causeway, and a long walk to the morfe interest- 

 ing parts of that piece of grand coast scenery; the Causeway 

 has been so often described that no words of mine are needed 

 in its praise. I will only say that we saw it under the most 

 favourable weather conditions, and the reality far exceeded 

 our expectations. On our return, I had a ramble over the 

 sandhill;S, on the sea edge of the golf course, and saw or took 



