CATERPILLAR-HUNTING BEETLES. 



These are usually found, under cover, 

 in gardens, fields, and open woods. They 

 are often abundant at light. Their common name, 

 Caterpillar Hunters, should recommend them, as it is 

 well given. Plate LXXIII gives sufficient help in identify- 

 ing calidum and scrutator. C. externum is about 1.25 in. 

 long; margins of pronotum and elytra blue; pronotum 

 with the sides rounded, flattened, and turned up behind. 

 Mr. Davis told of a "specimen which was found under an 

 electric light and squirted its acrid fluid into my face at a 

 distance of about a foot." They will do that sometimes. 

 C. ivillcoxi is similar to scrutator but only about .75 in. 

 long; the thorax is relatively narrower, and the margins 

 of the elytra are sometimes green. C. frigidum: about 

 .8 in. long; black above, greenish-black below; pronotum 

 and elytra with narrow, green margins; spots on elytra, 

 green. C. sayi: similar, but found from N. Y. southward 

 while frigidum occurs from N. Y. northward. C. syco- 

 phanta has recently been introduced from Europe to aid in 

 fighting the Brown-tail Moth. 



Even after I was supposed to know 

 Elaphrus . . _ _ . 



something about Entomology I tned to 



place E. ruscarius in Cicindela. All of the genus have the 

 general form of Tiger-beetles, but they are smaller and 

 lack the ornamental hairs. They inhabit sand-bars and 

 mud-flats. E. ruscarius is about .25 in. long; dull brassy 

 above, metallic green beneath; the numerous, circular 

 impressions on the elytra are purplish; legs, reddish-brown. 

 Adults have been taken at Christmas time as far north as 

 Indiana. 



A black Carabid, which is an inch or so 

 Pasimachus 



long and whose pronotum seems too big for 

 it (suggesting a collar that has come loose and moved up 

 the neck), probably belongs to this genus. They occur 

 especially where the soil is sandy, and are caterpillar hun r 

 ters. P. depressus (Plate LXXII) is blue-margined, but 

 often faintly. P. sublcwis occurs on the beach; the 

 pronotum and elytra are margined (often faintly) with 



285 



