6 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
sides between the sugar-cane fields, and at the commencement 
of the rainy season (end of April and first part of May), which 
is also the season of the swarming of a great number of insects, 
the ears of the grass are loaded with a multitude of large insects, 
mostly Coleoptera, captured by the spiny involucre of the spike- 
lets of the grass. It is evident that the insects are captured 
while flying against the minutely barbed spines, and that almost 
always they are held fast by the hind wings, very rarely by some 
other part of the body. Among the numerous species found on 
the ears of the grass are some of the most powerful Coleoptera 
of Cuba, for instance, the well-known "Cucujos" (genus Pyro- 
phorus) and the "Gallegos" (night-flying Scarabaeid genera 
L/achnosterna, Cyclocephala, etc.), but none of them are ever able 
to free themselves from the death grip of the grass. The follow- 
ing list includes only those species which could be picked off the 
ears of the grass in thousands of specimens within half an hour's 
walk. Night-flying species : Pyrophorus noctilucus,P. hauanien- 
sis, Monocrepidius bifoveatus, M. iimdus? Glyphonyx fusculus, 
Lachnopus curmpes? 2 , Lachnosterna crenaticollis, L. patruelis, 
L. suturalis, L. dissimilis, Cyclocephala signata. The day-flying 
Coleoptera are : Cycloneda sanguinea, Thonalmus, two or three 
species, Exophthalmus scalaris, Anoplosiagon pallidum. 3 The 
Hymenoptera are represented by numerous specimens of Apis 
mellifera; the Diptera by Mallophora orcina (?), and the Neu- 
ropteroid insects by several species of Odonata. For reasons 
which I cannot explain, the L/epidoptera, Hemiptera, and Or- 
thoptera were not represented among the insects thus captured. 
Very small insects, such as ants and small beetles of various 
families are able to walk with impunity over the barbs of the 
grass; and there are two large-sized species, viz., the grass- 
seed feeding earwig, Apterygida linearis, and a grass-seed suck- 
ing Pentatomid bug, (Ebalus pugnax both excessively com- 
mon in Cuba during the rainy season which are able to brave 
the dangers of the grass. 
The rather extensive subject of insects caught by plants may 
be divided into the following topics : 
1 This and the preceding species as well as various other large-sized 
Elateridae that are attracted by light are popularly called in Cuba "Cucujos 
ciegos, " blind Cucujos, because they lack the luminous, eye-like thoracic 
spots. 
2 1 experience some difficulty in the specific determination of this species. 
It is by far the most abundant, the most voracious and most polyphagous 
Otiorhynchid beetle in central Cuba. It is active both at day and night. 
3 This little Scarabaeid beetle flies about in countless numbers for an hour 
or so after sunrise, and in much smaller number just at sunset. 
