PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



VOL. 23 DECEMBER 1921 No. 



NEW GENERA AND SPECIES OF PROTURA. 



BY H. E. EWING, U. S. Bureau of Entomology. 



At the March meeting of the Entomological Society of Wash- 

 ington Mr. Barber and I reported the finding of Proturans in 

 the vicinity of Washington, D. C. At that time they had been 

 found only on a very few occasions and in numbers, only in one 

 situation. Since then the writer has taken them in several local 

 situations at Takoma Park, Maryland, and in some instances in 

 large numbers. 



The first specimen reported from the vicinity of Washington, 

 which was accidentally found by Barber in some leaf mold in 

 which he was rearing beetle larvae, and the two subsequent 

 specimens taken near Plummer's Island, Maryland, have been 

 found to be of the same species which is new. This species has 

 been named Acerentulus barberi by the writer, and is described 

 in a short paper which has been sent to the Entomological News 

 for publication. 



Since the finding of these primitive insects at Takoma Park, 

 Maryland, large numbers of them have been taken there. Up 

 to the present no less than twelve species have been found, and 

 more than this, all of these twelve species are represented in 

 collections from a single deposit of decaying leaves, twigs and 

 other organic material situated only a few rods from the writer's 

 home. It should be stated, however, that at no other place have 

 Proturans been found in such diversity or numbers as at this 

 particular spot where they were first located, almost by accident, 

 one evening last February. 



In reporting from a single locality as many as twelve different 

 species, which number is only four less than have been described 

 from the world, it is realized that some critics may be inclined to 

 discredit the specific determinations of the same. To these the 

 desire is expressed that they examine tor themselves the types 

 of these species which are deposited in the United States 

 National Museum. It asked to explain the occurrence of such 

 a larye number of species in a single locality I can only state 

 that it is my opinion that an unusually good sample of the North 

 American species occurring in the t'ppcr Austral Life /one has 

 been obtained. Certainly this collection can be n (thing more 

 and it may be much less than this; which fact causes one, upon 



