3^4 Note on Cyhister. [zoe 



ooo 



however, I became convinced that they were wolverines. I beheve 

 I have seen the animal on two other occasions in the high Sierra, 

 and once saw what I thought were tracks of three in fresh snow as 



'eet altitude. This was at Big Trees in January. Mr, 

 Watson, a hunter of Lake Tahoe, tells me he knows of the killing 

 of wolverines on the Tahoe and Placerville road, and Abe Ritchie, 

 who trapped a long time in Alpine County, told me he caught one 

 there, and I think said he had it mounted at Carson, Nevada. 



A few weeks ago I met Mrs. J. B. Scott, who formerly resided 

 in Hope Valley, Alpine County, and enquired if she remembered 

 Mr. Ritchie's strange animal, and she said she had a picture of it. 



NOTE ON CYBISTER. 



BY L. E. RICKSECKER. 



_ Two species of Cybister, both abundant in the streams of Califor- 

 nia, C. elUpticus Lee, and C expianatus, Lee, are somewhat diffi- 

 cult to separate. Mr. G. R. Crotch, in his paper on the Dytiscid^e 

 of the United States, publishea in the Transactions of the American 

 Entomological Society, June, 1873, says of C explanalus that it is 



extremely near ellipticus, but the females are generally smooth, 

 the elytral margin is narrowed at the apex, and the stridulating 

 plate (of the male) has five well-marked rug^," instead of 3-4, as 

 in elhpticns. '^ ^ 



^'^- '■ Fig. 2. 



These rugce have probably nothing to do with stridulation and 

 hey are not confined to the males. I have females of both species 



coL'^TT ^""'^ ''' ^^^"^^^^ ^^ f-"t «f the posterior 



ZTf.l 1 "^'!^^^^™T' '^^^ '^^ '°° inconstant for much depend- 

 to four ,n ^1 "P^.^t^^--- In empn-cus they are generally three 

 to four m number with sometimes a fifth partly developed Bx- 



