THE WEEKLY ENTOMOLOGIST. 
275 
the columns of the “ Weekly Ento- 
mologist,’'’ on the subject of Coleop- 
tera , calls for notice. On the 5th of 
September I observe that some 
captures are reported, but since that 
date a most remarkable absence of 
such notices has occurred. I for one 
cannot conjecture a reason. Surely 
the Lepidopterists have not been 
allowed to gain the ascendancy, 
which our friends the beetle-hunters 
have hitherto so successfully dis- 
puted with them. Surely the latter 
have not retired defeated, and left 
the field to the permanent occupa- 
tion of their brethren of the moths. 
Whatever may be the reason, I 
cannot but regard the want of such 
articles as a serious matter, and, 
although I have at present no list of 
captures to record, the following- 
remarks may, perhaps, be considered 
worthy of a place in the columns of 
the “ Entomologist,” in the absence 
of more interesting matter. 
The present season of the year is 
one in which Ooleopterists should be 
particularly active, as there is no 
period when activity will meet with 
a richer reward. The Gcodcphaga 
which, during the sultry heat of 
July and August, so completely 
disappeared are now once more 
abundant, and many species which 
collectors obtained early in the year, 
and failed to capture during the 
summer, might now be searched for 
with advantage. 
It is a remarkable thing that so 
many of the scarcer beetles captured 
seem to be confined to the London 
district, and is certainly suggestive 
of the idea that the London collec- 
tors either know good insects better 
than those in the country, or know 
better how to look for them. I am 
inclined to believe the former suppo- 
sition to be the correct one, when I 
consider how many of the scarce 
species which have common ones 
closely allied to them, are confined 
to the metropolitan suburbs. It may 
be said that this ought not to be the 
case, while notes in such profusion 
have been published in various 
works and while new species, as 
they are year by year discovered, 
are regularly and accurately re- 
corded in the “ Annual. ” But, 
though this may all be quite true, 
notes so scattex-ed, and often so 
obscure, can scarcely be expected to 
reach beginners in the sciexxce. What 
is wanted is a cheap popular book, 
pointing out the differences clearly 
betweeix closely allied species, and 
which will displace the obsolete 
work by Stephens, now uixfortu- 
nately the sole guide of many a 
promising beginnei-. Were such 
a woi-k within the reach of all, it 
surely would follow that a gigantic 
stride would be made towai-ds the 
complete investigation of the beetles 
inhabiting Great Britain, and that 
many a valuable discovei-y now 
slumbering under cover of a wrong 
name in the cabinet of the tyro, would 
