32 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



in characteristic genera and species, and may be said to be well 

 known, except that the higher mountain ranges are not yet 

 explored. No Coleoptera from the Cascade range (the coast 

 "range of British Columbia) have been recorded, but to judge from 

 a collection made by Mr. H. G. Hubbard and himself at North 

 Bend, in the Frazer River canon, it would appear that this fauna, 

 as a whole, is the same as that of the island region, although in 

 some features it resembles the fauna of the Cascade range of 

 Washington and Oregon. The fauna of the dry plateau of the 

 interior of British Columbia is almost entirely unexplored, but 

 seems to belong to the transition zone connecting the boreal 

 fauna with the eastern section of the sonoran fauna. The upper 

 sonoran fauna possibly enters the southern portion of the prov 

 ince. Of the three ranges of the Rocky Mountain system 

 which are crossed by the Canadian Pacific railroad, the western 

 most one viz., the Gold Range is, entomologically, entirely un 

 explored. On the Selkirks and the Rocky Mountains proper, 

 collections have been made which show that the fauna is entirely 

 boreal and almost identical with the boreal fauna of the Lake 

 Superior region. 



Mr. Ash mead, referring to the interesting case of dimorphism 

 in the Diurnals, mentioned by Mr. Fletcher, said that in his 

 opinion these phenomena are primarily brought about by the dif 

 fering character of the different seasons in regard to the rain-fall. 

 In Mississippi, he had noticed, with Hcliothis armiger that the 

 dark variety came with the rainy season, the light variety being 

 most abundant in dry weather. He had also noticed that with 

 other species the forms inhabiting dryer regions were lighter in 

 color than those inhabiting regions where the rain-fall was abun 

 dant. He thinks that perhaps we can explain many cases of 

 dimorphism in this way. 



Under the head of exhibition of specimens and short notes, 

 Mr. Schwarz exhibited a bottle, brought by Mr. Fletcher, which 

 contained two Coleoptera found in red pepper at Victoria, 

 Vancouver Island. One of these was the common Tribolimn 

 ferruginetim, ordinarily found in such situations, while the 

 other was Trigonogenius farctus Lee.* 



*Mr. Schvvarz'is remarks on this insect are printed in Canad. Ent. 28, 

 No. 7, July, 1896, p. 177-178. 



