Marine Beetle at Greenisland, Co. AntrimAuthor(s): Nora FisherSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 5, No. 12 (Nov., 1935), p. 310Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25532513 .

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310 The Irish Naturalists' Journal. [Vol. V.

BLACK-WINGED PRATINCOLE IN CO MAYO.

On 23rd August, 1935, a Black-wingedJ Pratincole, Glareola

nordmanni Nordm., was shot at Belmullet, Co. Mayo. This is the first occurrence in 50 years. The owner was attracted by its peculiar flight, rather like the slow beat of a tern. Although common in south of France and

Spain, this country seems to be outside its line of migration. Examined in the flesh by C. B. Moffat.

2 Dame Street, Dublin. W. J. WILLIAMS.

MARINE BEETLE AT GREENISLAND, CO. ANTRIM.

The marine beetle, A epus marinus Strom, is fairly common in one small area on the shore at Greenisland, N. side of Belfast Lough, Co. Antrim. It occurs just at the base of the zone of Fucus vesiculosus., in vertical cracks of a basaltic dyke which here pierces through red Triassic marl. A small

streamlet flows out on to the beach close, by, and also a surface drain, and the mingled waters flow out over the rocks within a yard or so of the beetles' habitat; after heavy rain probably seeping through to the cracks

where the beetles live. These cracks are full of a silty clay, and the Oollembolan Lipura maritima Guerin, occurs in them in vast numbers, sometimes looking like a sheet of blue-black velvet. The beetles occur among the Lipura, usually near the top of the crack, and only one or two beetles in each crack. I found them first in October, 1934, and since then have

always been able to get a few when I wanted them, until 21st April, 1935,, when I could not fiiid any.

Miall (Nat. Hist. Aqmttic Insects, p. 378, 1895) says that Aepus is

supposed to feed on: small mollusks, such as Rissoa parva and Lasaea, but Tomlin (in lit.) says

" It nearly always occurs under stones on the bare

sand; in the very }ast plade where one would expect to find R. parva. The

only Rissoa likely to occur with it would be cingillus. It is much more likely to feed on some of the smajl insects, Collembola or Thysanura, that occur in smaller habitats/' At Greenisland, Rissoa parva does occur on the same

rocks as the beetle, but on, top of the rocks and on algae, not in the cracks,

except a very occasional strayed specimen. To judge from the conditions under which it lives at Greenisland, one would certainly assume that its food was Lipura.

Mr. A. W. Stelfox has recorded (Proc. Malacological Soc, 12, pp. .318-9, 1917) a species of Aepus from Ballymacormick Pt., Co, Down, where it occurred with a most interesting association of marine! and semi-marine animals. A few of the animals comprising this association were also noted at Greenisland.

In Johnson and Halbert's "

List of the Beetles of Ireland" (Proc. R.I.A., 22, p. 588) no record of this species is given for Co. Antrim, but Miss E. E. Barry tells me that in an interleaved copy of the list which is now in the Belfast Museum Library, the late W. F, Johnson has added in ink 'Antrim, Larne, '14/' so apparently the Greenisland specimens are the second county record. Mr. J. R. le B. Tomlin kindly named the beetle for me.

Public Museums, Liverpool. NORA FISHER. '

ON SOME NORTHERN IRISH COLEOPTERA.

The following list contains records of some interesting coleoptera -collected at Soldierstown and on the shores of Lough Neagh, ^oth in County

Antrim, on 3rd and '4th September last. A number are apparently unrecorded for the county; these are denoted by an asterisk.

At Soldierstown collecting was done in the canal near the bridge, and at tLough Neagh in a dram near Gawley's l>ate and on the shore.

Agonum obscurum Herbst., Bembidion doris Panz. and B. bipunctatum L.,

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