1890.] 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



prausta. Under stones in a water course ; Dianous ccerulescens, Quedius 

 maurorufus and scintillans . By beating ivy ; O china hederce and Bem- 

 bidium quinque striatum. In putrid fish baits numerous Necrophori, 

 there was frequently more than a dozen specimens in each carrion 

 bottle. The species were Necrophorus humator, ruspator, iuterruptus, 

 mortuorum, and vespillo, Necrodes littoralis, and Silpha rugosa. Some of 

 the specimens of N. ruspator had the anterior yellow band on the 

 elytra more or less interrupted and one very distinctly so in this 

 respect being like N. iuterruptus. This last species however may be 

 known not only by the yellowish gray pubescence on the abdomen but 

 also by the coarser sculpture of the elytra. — Robert Gillo, 29 Rich- 

 mond Place, Bath. 



A DIGGING EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF 



BEETLES. 



By R. GILLO. 



Some of us so continuity use the net either for sweeping or in 

 conjunction with the beating stick for the capture of Coleoptera, that 

 we forget what a useful instrument we have in the digger. 



In the early part of June I sallied out armed only with a small 

 pointed garden trowel determined to see what could be got in this 

 way. It so happened that the very first field I reached had been used 

 for grazing cattle (cows or horses), and almost every patch of dung 

 showed plainly the presence of Geotrupes, there being little heaps of 

 mould thrown out by the beetles in digging their shafts. I found I 

 could easily get almost any number of Geotrupes stercorarius and 

 mutator. Taking the result of digging in various fields these two 

 species were about equally common, but I noticed that in exposed 

 situations G. stercorarius either predominated or was the only species 

 present. I may perhaps mention in passing that A . imitator and 

 stercorarius are common in this district (the neighbourhood of Bath) 

 in the spring and early summer, whereas in the autumn G. spiniger 

 abounds, but then it is the only species seen. 



My walk also took me through a field in which Copris lunarus occurs 

 every year, and on this occasion I got 18 specimen in less than half- 

 an-hour 



