80 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



little amongst the beetles, and have met 

 with several good species here, such as — 

 Pterostichus vitreus Dianous ccerulesceus 

 Nebria gyllenhalli . Stenus guynemeri (i) 

 Aphodius fcetidus Byrrhus dorsalis 

 ,, constans Corymbites cupreus 

 and var. aeruginosus and others. 



No. 3. 



DEAL SANDHILLS. 

 By W, H. TuGWELL. 



Perhaps there are few Entomological 

 localities better worth a visit than the Deal 

 Sandhills, especially if you know the best 

 spots and how to work them. Even in a 

 bad season as the past 1882, 1 and my friend 

 Mr. R. Adkin, were able to enjoy a few 

 fairly successful outings there ; and possibly 

 a short account of one of our afternoon 

 trips may be interesting to some of the 

 readers of the Y.N. I may preface it by 

 stating that the trip is a real one, not simply 

 an imaginary affair treating of what might 

 possibly be found there. 



The afternoon of July i8th, promising to 

 to be a really fine bright afternoon (a rarity 

 last year), we started at 3 p.m., intending to 

 pay a visit to the home of the very local 

 Acidalia ochrata. Our route lay to the north 

 of Deal, following the sea line past the old 

 ruined castle of Sandown, and having past 

 this point we avail ourselves of a low tide 

 to walk along the sands, that being pleasant 

 this bright summer afternoon. We have 

 three miles walk before us so we step out 

 briskly ; three-quarters of an hour brings us 

 abreast of the white coastguard houses, 

 after passing them some fifty yards we leave 

 the sands to the left and pass out on to the 

 sandhills. Here stretching away to the 

 north for two or three miles we have a flat 

 meadow-like country, bounded on our right 

 as we face north, by the sea, high water 



being indicated by a narrrow belt of marram 

 and coarse sea grasses, and on the left by a 

 low line of sandy hillocks. The ground is 

 carpetted with a fairly mixed herbage, the 

 most common being a very stunted growth 

 of Ononis arvensis, two or three bed- 

 straws, Galium verum being very abundant, 

 and patches of coarse grasses. On arriving 

 at this point we adjust our nets, pass 

 through a gate of a post and rail fence, run- 

 ning at right angles to the sea, go north- 

 ward about one hundred yards and we are 

 on the spot that Acidata ochrata has elected 

 for its home. Why it should be so extremely 

 localized just in this one spot is to me a 

 puzzle, for although I know English botany 

 fairly well, I fail to discover any special 

 plant growing here that is not equally dis- 

 tributed over several miles of these hills, 

 but the fact remains, here and here only will 

 you find ochrata! We soon see the little 

 fellow flying steadily over or settling on the 

 grass stems, &c, its dark ochreous colour is 

 readily detected, and its steady flight makes 

 it easy to capture ; but this bad season they 

 are not numerous, and we have to keep 

 steadily working for three or four . hours 

 before we could get a fairly good series of 

 them. Whilst working for this insect we 

 pick up a few other species, amongst them 

 some very finely marked E, Uneolata, a com- 

 mon insect here. Towards dusk Nyctegretes 

 achatinella begins to move, but for this species 

 we shift a little farther to the north, and 

 pretty near the fringe of coarse grass, mark- 

 ing high water line. As several of our 

 friends want this little moth we devote an 

 hour to it, getting a nice series. Time is 

 getting on and the light fast going, we think 

 it best to retrace our steps, as wc intend 

 paying a visit to a marsh ditch for eviutaria, 

 &c. So repassing the gate, and going to the 

 right of the coastguard houses, we strike a 

 rough cart track to Sandwich ; we take this 

 road till we get to a broad ditch, fringed 

 with marsh plant and rushes, we follow 



