INSECTS The following account of the insects of the county is a very imperfect one with regard to most of the orders : the list of the Lepidoptera is by far the best, and that of the Diptera is also a valuable one : these are due to the work of Dr. Wood of Tarrington, Hereford. Very little has been done at the Coleoptera, and, with a few striking exceptions, the list is chiefly remarkable for the absence of all but common species : nothing practically is known about any of the other orders. The county presents great variation in configuration and elevation, and it is probably as rich in insects as any other inland county of Great Britain, the occurrence of certain Scotch or northern forms being particularly interesting : it is to be hoped that the western side of the county may be thoroughly worked, as it is certain that many good species will be found on the borders of Radnorshire and Breck- nockshire, ORTHOPTERA AND NEUROPTERA After close search through entomological literature for records of Orthoptera and Odonata, and a somewhat less extended one for those of the rest of the Neuroptera, I have succeeded in finding but six insects belonging to those orders for the whole of Herefordshire, nor does it seem that a still closer search would reveal many more. The insects are : — The Orthopteron, Thamnotri%on cinereus, in Mr. Eland Shaw's collection, taken by Mr. H. H. Winston, at Hereford ; the Neuroptera, Chloroperla grammatica, at Tarrington (Col. Yerbury) ; Nemoura variegata^ at Tarrington and Much Marcle (Col. Yerbury) ; Anaheim coenosa, Leominster probably (Newman's collection) ; Stenophylax striatus, Leominster (McLachlan) ; Mormonia basalts, near Leominster (Newman). Of the Neuroptera, the first two are Perlids and the remainder Caddis-flies. Should this meagre list induce any entomologist of the county to turn his attention to these very much neglected orders, he should record all species, however common ; for, judging by what we have before us, no one would be justified in asserting that a dragonfly or a mayfly forms part of the fauna of the county, or that the common earwig even, or the kitchen cockroach, may be found within its borders. COLEOPTERA Beetles The Herefordshire list of Coleoptera is at present in a very unsatisfactory state ; in fact I hardly thought that I could obtain material for any list at all, and it will be noticed that a very large number of the species as yet recorded are of wide or universal distribution ; at the same time some very interesting species have occurred. The most remarkable is Pyrochroa pectinlcornis, a scarce Scotch species, hitherto only recorded as British from the highlands of Scotland. This was taken by that excellent observer Dr. Chapman, on the Herefordshire portion of the Black Mountain, which will probably, if worked, yield many other northern species. Among other beetles of interest the following may be mentioned : — Hydraena pulchella, Quedius vexans, Amsotoma cinnamomea, Rhixophagus dispar, Cortkaria crenicollis, Pediacus dermestoides, Xyletinus ater, Gnorimus nobilis, and 80
