Volume 9 - Electric Scotland

RECORDS OF SCOTTISH COLEOPTERA AND HEMIPTERA 91
SOME RECORDS OF SCOTTISH COLEOPTERA
AND HEMIPTERA.
By WILLIAM EVANS, F.R.S.E.
I. COLEOPTERA.
IT is now no easy matter to add to the list of Scottish
Coleoptera, so well has this group of insects been already
investigated in several of our faunal areas. A great deal,
however, still remains to be done in working out the distribution
of the various species known to occur in the
country. This fact was impressed upon me during the
publication of Canon Fowler's " Coleoptera of the British
Islands," 1887-91, and since then I have devoted a good
deal of time to beetle-hunting with the object of supplementing
the published records. The number of specimens
collected to date is fully 16,000, obtained chiefly in the
Forth Area ;
but not a few are from the Strathspey district
of " Moray," while Tweed, Clyde, and Argyll are each represented
by some hundreds.
The serious part of the work has, as usual, been the
identification of the specimens, and in this connection I owe
a very deep debt of gratitude to my friend the Rev. Alfred
Thornley, F.L.S., South Leverton, Notts. Had he not been
willing to help me, a large portion of the collection would
probably have had to remain unnamed. When I mention
that he has examined about two -thirds of my captures,
checking and completing my rough and imperfect
writing out original ones, it will be seen I am under no
ordinary obligation to him.
My best thanks are also due to Dr. D. Sharp of Cambridge,
who has kindly given me his opinion regarding a
number of the more difficult species, a favour I greatly
lists or
appreciate.
The number of species already recognised in the collection
is rather more than 800, and many
of them are from
faunal areas from which they have not yet been recorded,
the additions to the Forth district alone being over 100.