THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
207 
CoLEOPTERA. 
Winter Quarters . — During the present 
winter I have taken one or two species 
new to my district, and found others in 
abundance. Every collector has of course 
noticed beetles hybernating in companies, 
but I can arrive at no satisfactory reason 
for an exclusive assemblage of individuals 
of one species: the mere fact of passing 
the winter in company is sufficiently puz- 
zling, and must be the result of some in- 
stinct unknown to us, as it cannot be for 
the sake of warmth, no caloric being 
given out by any quantity of torpid Cole- 
optera. One would expect to find any 
common species dispersed about a tree 
under every convenient piece of bark ; but 
I have olten noticed a large number of 
specimens congregated together, and few 
or none on other parts of the same tree. 
There are two species on willows near 
Chelsea that almost invariably hyber- 
nate in quantities , — Haltica helxines and 
Phcedon vitellince , — and only once have 
I seen Helodes marginella among the 
latter, though it is not uncommon in the 
same locality, and the Haltica is never 
accompanied by any other beetle. I have 
also found great red patches of Coccinella 
bipunctata, including many of the dif- 
ferent forms of that variable insect, but 
unmixed with the above or any other 
species, and nearer the ground Carabus 
granulalus occurs in matted bundles of 
ten or twelve at a time. On the Thames 
bank I saw about 200 in one small row 
of willows. This and C. calenulatus ap- 
pear to be the most gregarious of the 
genus; violaceus and nemo rails, though 
more common, have always been noticed 
by me as solitary in their habits. In the 
very rotten parts of old willows near 
Chelsea I have turned out the deeply 
sulcated little Aphodius porcalus, but 
sparingly ; and in chinks of poplar bark 
the three common Dromii (4 -notalus, 
4 -maculalus and agilis) are very plentiful, 
with an occasional Erirhinus vorax 
( longimanus ). On tearing off wet bark 
small Brachelytra may be found in the 
sappy parts, Homalota and Prognatha 
especially. 
On the Middlesex side of the Thames 
bank I have found the following : — 
Quedius cruentus. 
Xantholinus ochraceus. 
Haploderus coelatus. 
Anchomenus scitulus. 
atratus. Very plentiful, 
but local. 
Harpalus cribellum. Surely a strange 
locality for this maritime and “ creto- 
philous ” species. 
Chlaenius nigricornis, with yellow tibi®, 
and the pachymerous male of Stenus 
Juno, apparently rarer than the thin- 
legged goddess, his wife. 
On Wimbledon Common Strophosomus 
limbatus and Brady cellus similis (both 
new to the locality, as far as my expe- 
rience goes) have occurred to me. 
At Hammersmith Marshes the few 
ridges not submerged are very produc- 
tive ; by cutting and shaking tufts of grass 
Stenolophus consputus, Skrinishiranus, 
luridus and vesperlinus come tumbling 
out, with legs tucked up, and in the 
loose ground, at roots of old stumps, the 
large Badisler unipuslulatus (a beautiful 
insect when alive) may be found, though 
not so common as formerly, whilst perfect 
hordes of Stenus, Homalota, Xantholinus, 
Falagria, Lathrobium and Philonthus can 
be obtained from the grass roots and 
reeds. In my house I have found Cryp- 
tophagus acutangulus . — E. C. Rve, 284 , 
King’s Road, Chelsea; March, 1860. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Coleophora Saiuratella . — Last March 
I found six cases of this species on 
broom, growing upon Hampstead Heath. 
On visiting the spot at the commence- 
ment of July I failed in finding either 
