174 
THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
insect, and let us hope it will never attain 
to the dignity of a place in our British 
Fauna. I should advise all who take 
them to destroy without mercy. — C. R. 
Bree, Stricklands, Stow market ; Aug. 22. 
COLEOPTERA. 
Carabus auratus P — A correspondent 
having informed me that the insect called 
by that name in No. 46 of the 4 Intelli- 
gencer’ is not auratus but nitens, I con- 
sider it my duty to make it known. 
Nevertheless I have my own doubts upon 
the subject, as my insect agrees with the 
description of C. auratus in Stark’s 4 Na- 
tural History.’ Should it, however, 
eventually prove to be nitens, it is still 
an extremely local and valuable beetle. — 
Richard T vrer, jun., Row Lane, South- 
port, Lancashire ; August 22. 
COLEOPTERA. 
There is a mode of collecting (applic- 
able, however, only to the members of 
certain groups) which our Coleopterists 
do not sufficiently put into practice, but 
which would be found nevertheless to re- 
pay them well ; we refer to the general 
system of setting traps for their prey. We 
all know, for instance, that bones and cer- 
tain other rejectamenta (whether animal 
or vegetable), are peculiarly attractive to 
numerous species; and we accordingly 
seldom fail to examine them when they 
come in our path : and yet, in spite of 
this, it is not often that we take the 
trouble of systematically conveying such- 
like substances to our various scenes of 
action, and, leaving them there, to watch 
the result. It may be perhaps that the 
Anglo-Saxon race is too fastidious to en- 
joy the habitual handling of such “pre- 
cious morsels;” and yet we feci assured 
that if even a tithe of our collectors would 
consent to (ill one of their pockets (say 
twice a- week) with dead rats, — the more 
putrid the better, — and the other with 
bones (such as could be easily obtained 
from any dog-kennel), and would deposit 
them, as they go, at regular intervals, 
en route to their collecting-grounds, we 
should hear of many more additions to 
the list of our British Necrophaga than 
we are accustomed to do. 
Bones are a perfect god-send to hosts 
of Coleoptera ; they prefer them to almost 
everything else ; and it is surprising with 
what instinct, and from what fabulous 
distances, they will track them out. Such 
being the case, then, why do we not 
ofteuer take advantage of their pre- 
judices, and so do them a special kindness 
and enrich our own cabinets simulta- 
neously P The whole of the Nitidula 
may be thus allured ; and in the imme- 
diate vicinity of warehouses and towns 
we may often entice the Trogosita Mauri- 
tanica, Biphyllus lunalus, Mezium sul- 
catum ; certain of the Cryptophagi and 
Lcemophlcci, and quantities of the smaller 
Brachelytra. The species of Trox also 
are readily fascinated by bones ; and, in 
the New Forest, the great T. sabulosus 
may be constantly captured, if we will 
only bait for it. 
There are other beetles of a still purer 
taste, which make decaying carcases (be 
they rats, mice, hedgehogs, or anything 
else) the great business of their lives ; 
such are the Necrophori, Silp/uc, Staphy - 
Uni, &c. ; and the mode of entrapping 
these let us now speak of. 
When animal matter becomes ex- 
tremely corrupt, it is apt to commingle 
with the soil beneath, from which it is 
not always easy to extricate the treasures 
which are revelling in, and feasting on, 
its delights. We would advise, there- 
fore, those incipient collectors who have 
not yet become fully initiated into the 
mysteries of our craft to adopt the fol- 
lowing plan, which will save them much 
trouble, and add considerably to their 
comfort: — Procure a few earthenware 
pans, glazed internally, and with their 
sides almost perpendicular; and, having 
