THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 241 



Coleoptera are not numerous on the saline llora, but most of them occur 

 also elsewhere. The large Galeruca erosa, which, when alive, is of a 

 bright sulphur yellow colour, feeds with its larva on a species of Sueda, 

 and is clearly a saline species, though not confined to the Salt Lake region. 



Concluding this hasty sketch of the Salt Lake fauna, I would say that 

 one of the reasons why so little of this fauna has hitherto been 

 recorded, is that most presons coming from Salt Lake City visit the lake 

 only at Garfield Beach, which is at present the most readily accessible 

 point of the south shore. But just at this spot the saline fauna is but 

 poorly represented, and, moreover, the desert flora and fauna come here 

 close to the lake. The immense salt flats which commence about one mile 

 from Garfield Beach are rarely visited ; but here is the home of the 

 genuine salt fauna. Collecting in the semi-fluid and ill-smelling salt mud 

 of these flats is, however, somewhat troublesome, and it would be no 

 easy matter to bring together a complete set of the various species. 

 Fortunately, however, the entomologist finds here assistance in an unex- 

 pected way. There are several large salt works on these flats, where 

 numerous large, shallow ponds have been excavated for the purpose of 

 gaining salt by the evaporation process. If there is no water in these 

 ponds, the bottom consists of a tenacious, loam-like mud, saturated with 

 concentrated brine, and here concealed in this mud some of the most 

 characteristic species of the Great Salt Lake fauna (Pogonus planatiis, 

 Dyschirius salivagans, Bledius, ( ^ species,) Tanarthrus salicola,) can be 

 found in great numbers of specimens 



Mr. Smith gave some 



NOTES ON THE FOOD HABITS OF XYLEBORUS DISPAR. 



In the latter part of June while collecting along a road, he noticed 

 that many of the young willows and birches on one side of the road were 

 dead. Investigation showed that in the main stem, usually about three 

 feet from the ground, a colony of Scolytids were boring. At this time 

 there were a few larvae, more pup^e, but a yet larger number of newly 

 matured beetles. The galleries were longitudinal, and up or down from 

 a main transverse and somewhat irregular central channel, which had an 

 opening through the bark. This gallery so weakened the stems, which 

 were from one-half to one inch in diameter, that they would readily break. 

 In some cases where all the insects were in the imago state all the longi- 

 tudinal galleries were full of beetles, all headed toward the blind end of 



