190 THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
COLEOPTERA. 
Seasonable Notes. 
Reeds . — -The other day, at Hammer- 
smith Marshes, I turned my attention 
for half an hour to the reeds, or rather 
that portion of the stems remaining after 
the tops were cut off in the autumn. 
The dwellings of men are fast encroach- 
ing on this favourite domain of insects, 
but still there is a considerable space 
covered with reeds, which are usually cut 
down in the autumn, but last year the 
bulk of the crop was left standing, and 
only here and there have the stems been 
cut, so that the field of operation was 
restricted. A lapsus calami is usually 
regretted, and has to be explained, apo- 
logized for or atoned for, but in this 
case no such consequences follow, and 
the fall of a reed is productive of happi- 
ness to many. Although the root of the 
reed is in the water, the portion of cut 
stem projecting above it affords to certain 
beetles a hybernaculum, that is, where an 
inch or iwo has been left above a knot ; 
into the retreat so formed one, two or 
more beetles betake themselves. But 
they are not always secure, for a kind of 
spider thinks that he has as much right 
to winter there as any beetle, and woe 
betide the unlucky hexapod that endea- 
vours to seek hospitality in the dwelling 
of this occupant. Bete noir I was going 
to call him, but however appropriate the 
name may be to his character, it would 
not be fitting to his colour, — he is a dirty 
rascal nevertheless. The proverb that 
“ there is a skeleton in every house ” is 
true even here, only that in this instance 
it is not articulated, the resident professor 
of anatomy having dislocated the joints 
of his victim, and left them so. How- 
ever synthetical his works may be out of 
doors, he does but little in that way here 
beyond making himself us comfortable as 
he cun with a bit of flossy upholstery, his 
operations now being chiefly critical and 
analytical. I say now, but in fact his 
deeds are of the past; he has long slum- 
bered, and only wakes up as the knife of 
the Coleopterist splits the reed, when, 
coward that he is, he accepts the shock 
as a writ of ejectment, and, as if con- 
science-stricken, he bundles out without 
tarrying an instant to see if any harm 
was intended to be done to him. Let 
him go, and let the reed go too, for you 
will find nothing more in it. But take 
another stump of reed, and you will pro- 
bably discover two or three torpid indi- 
viduals of Coccinella \9-punctala or Ga- 
leruca Lylhri and G. Sagitlaria, or all 
three species together. More rarely you 
will see Coccidula scutellata and C.rufa. 
Sometimes there is Anchomenm Tkoreyi 
in possession; water-bailiff he might be 
called, blit he is of that nature that he 
will admit no rival, and so he dwells 
alone. After the tenement is empty, 
but below the joint, I sometimes found 
a larva of Nonagria squeezed into the 
cavitv, and fortunate for him it was his 
bed was of the Procrustean kind, for he 
could stretch himself lengthwise, or it 
rather seemed he had been stretched by 
force of lateral pressure, for when turned 
out he was not nearly so long as when 
under the coverlid. Such was the produce 
of my short search ; any one who could de- 
vote more time than I had may probably 
add to the list of species, and it would be 
well if the reeds in the feus of Hunting- 
donshire and Cambridgeshire could be 
explored now. Visions of Demetrius 
imperialis, Dromius longiceps, Odacantha 
nielaiiura, and other tine things, so 
“ rarely seen by morlal.eye,” rise up be- 
fore me, and it may be the beetles are only 
waiting for some one to go and prove 
that it is not a mere dream I have had. — 
J. W. Douglas, Let; March 3. 
Macclesfield Entomological So- 
ciETV. — The Annual General Meeting 
