THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



203 



able. There was abundant evidence along this road of the lateness of the 

 season as compared, with last year about the same date. AU the hedge- 

 banks were then covered with a mass of primroses, but now scarcely a leaf, 

 much less a flower, of this lovely spring favourite was to be seen. We 

 reached the slate quarries at the foot of Moel-y-gamelin by twelve o'clock, 

 where, after a short rest, we began work in earnest. The base of the hill is 

 covered with a thick growth of heather, and as it looked a very likely place 

 for Gymindis vaporariorum, we searched for some time, but without success. 

 The heather on all the hills hereabouts seems to have suffered very much 

 from the long drought in the summer of last year, but I should think this 

 does not account for the absence of C. vaporariorum, which Dawson says is 

 abundant about there in spring and autumn. 



Not meeting with much success on the lower slopes, we began to make 

 tracks for higher ground, but insects, even of common species, were very 

 scarce, the majority owinsj to recent cold and wet weather, being still in 

 their winter quarters where it was difficult to get at them. The first capture 

 of note was Pterostichus vitreus made by Dr. Ellis, and a second falling to 

 my share immediately afterwards, acted as a sort of stimulant, for, to my 

 mind, nothing in Entomological work is so dreary and depressing as creep- 

 ing on one's hands and knees up a mountain side, and turning over stone 

 after stone without seeing a single insect which could not be taken within 

 five minutes walk from your own door. The common Pterostichus madidus 

 and Nebria brevicollis were frequently met with, and had to be carefully ex- 

 amined for fear of discarding Pterostichus cethiops among the former, or 

 Nebria Gyllenhalii among the latter ; they all, however, proved to be the 

 common species — probably we were not high enough above the sea level for 

 these mountain insects. 



We had now got about half way up the east slope of the hill, when, on 

 turning over stone number one thousand and one I took the gem of the day's 

 out — a specimen of Miscodera arctica. This beetle has very probably not 

 been taken on the Llangollen moors since Dawson worked them nearly thirty 

 years ago, and as Dr. Ellis and Mr. J. H. Smedley have carefully searched 

 for it on several occasions without success, we were not a little pleased to get 

 it, although it was the " only one." Yery soon a shout from Dr. Ellis an- 

 nounced the capture of the beautiful Garabus arvensis, which, if not quite so 

 rare as M. arctica, was equally welcome ; a second being taken by myself 

 shortly afterwards. On arriving towards the summit, the slopes were found 

 to be very boggy, and produced nothing except the usual dark forms of 

 Notiophili, and the stones forming the cairn gave shelter to N. brevicollis 

 only. 



