THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 215 



have not been slow to avail themselves of this opportunity, and an 

 unexpectedly large number of hitherto unknown species have been 

 brought from that region, especially from Arizona. Skilled field 

 coleopterists have been over the lines of all other transcontinental rail- 

 roads constructed since 1874, including the Canadian Pacific Railroad 

 (opened in 1886), and over most of their branches. In short, the whole 

 country lying west of the Rocky Mountains and east of the Sierra Nevada 

 may be said now to be explored as well as can be expected by entomo- 

 logical travellers or expeditions. This exploration is necessarily more or 

 less superficial, a mere skimming of the surface. What is needed for the 

 region mentioned is the presence of a number of active resident specialists ; 

 for even the most expert collector is unable during a few weeks' excursion 

 to thoroughly explore even a very small area. He cannot acquire that 

 local knowledge which is necessary to a thorough investigation ; he has 

 but little chance for making biological observations, and he cannot pos- 

 sibly keep track of the species appearing in the different seasons of the 

 year. What can be accomplished by the work of resident specialists has 

 been shown of recent years in California, and, thanks to their labours, the 

 fauna of that State is now as thoroughly known as that of Pennsyl- 

 vania or Virginia. 



There is something else needed for the West, viz., a speedy explora- 

 tion wherever possible of those sections where the native flora and 

 fauna are still intact from the inroads of civilization. Faunas and floras 

 of small islands have within the memory of a single generation undergone 

 great changes ; native species have disappeared and cosmopolitan species 

 have taken their place. The island of St. Helena is a familiar and 

 often quoted example of this influence of human cultivation, and not long 

 ago one of our botanists complained of the inevitable extermination in 

 the near future of some of the plants peculiar to one of the most interest- 

 ing faunal regions of the West, viz., the islands off the coast of California. 

 This influence of man not only produces changes on islands of smaller or 

 larger extent, but also affects, though in a much slower way, larger 

 faunal regions. In 1891 I had, in the company of Mr. H. G. Hubbard, 

 an opportunity to visit the more readily accessible parts of the Wasatch 

 Mountains of Utah, and a few days' exploration convinced me that the 

 aboriginal fauna of that range must have been quite different from what 

 we found. This range, once covered with a magnificent coniferous 

 forest, has now been more or less completely denuded in consequence of 



