THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 253 



has taken possession." * My experience was that the " marauding 

 lyogosita " frequently had taken possession, so that the monogamous 

 Epurcea was by no means as abundant as I could have wished, for this 

 beetle has, I think, not been seen since Crotch's time. It is a giant of 

 its genus, being nearly equal to Phenolia grossa in size, and its colour is so 

 dark and lustrous a brown as to be almost piceus. Notwithstanding its 

 large size and conspicuous contrast in colour with the dead white of the 

 fungus, it is a most difficult insect to discover, by reason of the facility 

 with which its spine-clad body attracts and retains the white dust or 

 spores of the fungus. This gives it perfect concealment in its home 

 within the cavity of the fungus, and when abroad and denuded of its 

 coating of dust, its dark colour harmonizing with the charred bark of the 

 pine tree renders it almost invisible. On the yth of June, at North Bend, 

 in the Fraser River canon of B. C, I found the beetle occasionally present 

 in fungi which had recently matured and were giving off spores, and 

 always in pairs, as indicated by Crotch. Old devitalized fungi, or those 

 already occupied by other insects, have no attraction for this beetle. Its 

 larva was much more common, and undoubtedly the adult beetles become 

 abundant later in the season. The full-grown larva is half an inch long, 

 and is a very striking object. It is always coated heavily with dust and 

 spores, and when at rest is almost invisible, but when in motion the seg- 

 ments part at the sutures, showing the pale pink colour of the body, and 

 the animal looks like a moving necklace of pearls. It feeds only upon 

 the spores, and the cavities of the fungi occupied by them never show 

 any signs of having been gnawed or eaten on the sides. 



Another beetle, Platydema oregonense, was very common in the 

 cavities of the Cryptoporus at North Bend. It is one of the largest 

 species of the genus, and several of them crowded into one small fungus 

 must have found themselves rather cramped for room. It is not likely 

 that the Platydema is dependent on the Cryptoporus for its living. Our 

 eastern species of the genus are indiscriminate feeders upon many kinds 

 of fungi, although they are usually associated with the tougher coriaceous 

 sorts. The larva ai P. oregonense was found commonly with the imagos, 

 occupying the natural cavity or eating holes in the hemispherical upper 

 portion of the pileu.s. Whenever the larva was present in the cavity of 

 the fungus, the latter was always more or less filled with a loose tangle of 

 brown filaments resembling hair. The nature and origin of these filaments 



*Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc , Vol. V., 1874, p. 76-77. 



