OF WASHINGTON. 133 



drew more attention to the fall transformation, and for many 

 years have been convinced that, so far as the latitudes of St. 

 Louis and Washington are concerned, this last is the more 

 common. Prof. Forbes himself, in 1883, followed closely my 

 statement in 1868. In looking up my MS. notes, however, I 

 find positive evidence that fall transformation is not the uni 

 form habit, as Prof. Forbes' s conclusions would lead one to 

 suppose ; because what has been taken for fusca has some 

 times been found in the spring, and in one instance the full- 

 grown larva of what was in one case fusca and in the other 

 either fusca or ephelida, was found and pupated in spring. 

 Considering all the facts, I am inclined to believe that those 

 species which appear early in summer transform, as a rule, 

 the previous autumn, such for instance as arcuata, hirticula, 

 fraterna and tristis. These have all been found in the imago 

 state at Washington in the fall or winter, and Mr. Schwarz 

 tells me that the same is true of dubia and hirticula in Michi 

 gan. The later-appearing species, i. e,, gracilis, gibbosa and 

 crenulata, are not found as beetles in the ground, in the fall, 

 the legitimate inference being that they transform as a rule in 

 spring. According to Mr. Schwarz' s experience some of the 

 early appearing species, viz : inversa and micans, which are 

 quite common in Washington, have not yet been found in the 

 fall, and, so far as the negative fact goes, it would militate 

 against this generalization and indicate that in these instances 

 the transformation is vernal. Of the undetermined larvae, a 

 certain number collected near Washington in the fall of 1888, 

 all of the same size, remained untransformed during the 

 winter one having changed to pupa in May and the others 

 having died during the spring. 



Prof. Fofbes records in his paper having found pupae or 

 larvae beginning to pupate in the month of June, the species, 

 if I recollect rightly, being inversa, which is one of those 

 which appear early with us ; but such early pupation, if of .a 

 late-appearing species, would not necessarily argue that the 

 imagos would remain inactive until the following year, but 

 might apply to late-appearing species, such as gibbosa and 

 ephelida, which are recorded in the latitude of Washington as 

 late as August. In fact, a well advanced pupa of what is 

 without doubt the latter species (it is a $ , and shows the 

 characteristic tibial spur) is in the collection taken in August. 

 The records, as published by Smith, show that ephelida occurs 

 in July and August, being our latest species, and it is safer to 

 assume that the imago from* this pupa would have issued and 

 paired the same season, than that the imago would have re- 

 . mained practically inactive till the subsequent July. The 



