254 



The Irish Naturalist. 



December, 



globosus ; all were plentiful. Amara bifrons'*', A. tibialis], 

 and A. fa^ii Harts*, were none of them plentiful, and were 

 taken crawling about on the sand; in two places we took a 

 large number of Tachypus pallipes\, one place was a large 

 depression among the sandhills which might at one time 

 have been a shallow lagoon, the other was the point at 

 Drumcliff Bay ; the}^ were very numerous and very active 

 but difficult to detect at first from their habit of remaining 

 quite still beside a stone or a plant. Mrs. Johnson first 

 detected them, but it took us some practice to find them with 

 facility. This beetle has been recorded in Ireland from only 

 one other locality, viz., Coolmore, Co. Donegal, where it was 

 taken by Mr. I^angham {Irish Naturalist, vi., p. 58). 



I was very much disappointed about water-beetles, as I fully 

 anticipated meeting with some good species in a place so well 

 supplied with suitable localities, but the results of our efforts 

 in this direction were meagre in the extreme, Ilybius obscurus'\ 

 being the only one worth mentioning. Among the 

 Hydrophilidae I need only record Laccobius minutus\. 



I was much pleased to find a specimen of Xantholifius 

 cribripennis, Fauvel, among my captures at Rosses Point. This 

 capture extends its range southwards. It has been already 

 recorded from Magilligan, and Buncrana, where it was taken 

 by the late Mr. Buckle, and from Coolmore, Bundoran, and 

 the banks of the River Krne, near Ball3^shannon, where it was 

 taken by myself It would be very easily overlooked in the 

 field, for it looks very like the common X. linearis. 



I was much surprised to find so few Staphylinidae in sea- 

 weed, which is usually so prolific of them. Vainly did we 

 turn and shake suitable lumps, the beetles were not there, and 

 at last we gave it up. I may say that most of the "staphs" 

 captured were taken in cow-dung. The most interesting were 

 the following : — Quedius rufipes*, Philonthus intermedius"^ , 

 Ph. cruentatus], PL sordidus\, Ph. quisquiliarius, Stilicus 

 similis], Bledius arenaritts (very abundant at the mouth of a 

 little stream) B. pallipes\ taken sparingly with the following 

 in the sandy plain behind the sandhills and near to a small 

 lake. I believe in winter this part is subject to flooding, and 

 there v/ere pools of water near which the Bledius were most 

 numerous This species has only been recorded once 



