A HISTORY OF KENT Apid« {continued) Apid^ [continued) Bombus hortorum, L. Common everywhere Bombus pomorum, Panz. Very rare. Deal „ race subterraneus. Common (Smith) „ „ var. harrisellus. — lapidarius, L. 1 ^ , " " ^ • T >• Common everywhere Common — terrestris, L. J ■' — jonellus, Kirb. Martin (Sladen), JVych- „ race lucorum, Sm. Common ling (Norton) Apis, L. — pratorum, L. Common everywhere — mellifica, L. Common everywhere COLEOPTERA Beetles There is no county which is richer in Coleoptera than Kent. This is due to its geographical situation and physical features. Within its confines we find nearly all the conditions that are most productive of beetle life — mud flats, salt marshes, brackish ditches with abundant water plants, chalk cliffs, sandhills and stretches of seaweed covered beach, and inland woods and undisturbed park land with plenty of decaying trees ; while over and above all these is the luxuriant vegetation and flora of the ' Garden of England.' On the north runs the great estuary of the Thames, and from its right bank the deep estuary of the Medway penetrates inland for miles, while from Whitstable to Dunge Ness runs a varied coastline, including some of the best collecting grounds in the kingdom, such as the Isle of Thanet, Pegwell Bay, and the classic localities of Deal sandhills and Folkestone warren. Among inland localities we may mention Birch and Darenth Woods, which have been worked by collectors for more than a century, and which have been as productive of rarities as the New Forest itself If the New Forest has given us Anthaxia nitidula, Darenth Wood has yielded the equally beautiful Agrilus biguttatus in numbers ; and if the New Forest and sur- rounding district has produced species not found elsewhere in Britain, Kent can lay claim to the same distinction. We need only mention Harpalus cordatus, Stenolophus elegans, Brachida ?iotha, Lafigelandia anoph- thalma, Cis bilamellatus, Lixus bicolor^ Apion lavigatum, A. semivittatum and Baris scolopacea, and perhaps we ought to include the brilliant Rhynchites bacchus, of which authentic specimens appear to have been taken in Birch Wood at intervals from 1795 onwards, although now it seems to be extinct in Britain. The extraordinary productiveness of the district around the Medway is shown by Com. J. J. Walker's list of the Coleoptera of the Rochester district, which only comprises a six-mile radius round Chatham and Rochester. This list contains over sixteen hundred species, or nearly one half of the British Coleoptera. Com. Walker has thoroughly worked the northern part of the county, and he would doubtless have compiled the list of Kentish Coleoptera but for the fact that he is absent on duty in Australian waters. I take this opportunity therefore of acknowledging the use I have made of his valuable catalogue, and also of thanking Mr. ^ A single specimen of this insect has been recorded from the Portsmouth district, but this may possibly have been in error. — W. W. F. 122
