186 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, 



half a score before the counter wind drives them away. In the spring 

 there is seldom a southeast wind (blowing from uur nearest point on the 

 river), but when there is it brings the mosquitoes in abundance and sooner 

 than from the northeast. 



The most of the mosquitoes here, then, must have traveled over a hot, 

 dry, barren desert waste for at least 22 miles, and many of them probably 

 considerable farther to reach any place even as inviting as this. How 

 much farther into the desert they may journey can only be conjectured, 

 but I have found them at least 4 miles beyond here. 



The genus Anopheles is probably not found along the Colorado. At 

 least its attendant malaria is unknown to this region. G. C. DAVIS, 

 Ogilby, Cal. 



THE NEW MEXICO BIOLOGICAL STATION. The Biological Station was 

 founded as an independent institution at Mesilla in 1896. In 1899 it was 

 moved to Las Vegas, and held a successful summer session in the New 

 Mexico Normal University. A brief session was also held in 1900. The 

 students in attendance have been mostly public school teachers. The re- 

 sults of the research work have been published in the Annals and Maga- 

 zine of Natural History. 



The Station will now be conducted as a part of the work of the biologi- 

 cal department of the Normal University. The session of 1901 will com- 

 mence on the first of June. A course in Nature Study will be offered to 

 public school teachers, and opportunities will be afforded for research 

 work along a number of different lines. 



Las Vegas offers excellent opportunities for biological work. The 

 summer climate is very good, and at no time is the heat excessive, as it 

 is at lower altitudes in New Mexico and other parts of the Southwest. The 

 altitude is about 6400 ft., with mountains close by rising above n,ooo ft. 



Four distinct life-zones the Upper Austral, the Transition, the Cana- 

 dian and Hudsonian can be studied within 35 miles of Las Vegas. It 

 results from this, that the local fauna and flora are extremely rich in spe- 

 cies ; in the Hudsonian Zone are forms of circumpolar distribution, and 

 others ranging to Alaska, though not to Asia or Europe ; in the Canadian 

 Zone we find types inentical with those of the mountains of the Northern 

 States and of Colorado ; in the Transition a varied assemblage typical in 

 part of the foothill region of the Rocky Mountain Range ; in the Upper 

 Austral many species characteristic of the arid southwest, some ranging 

 far southward and westward. With all this comes a certain percentage of 

 local or endemic types, just how numerous further research must deter- 

 mine. Such are the snail Ashnmnclla thomsoniana porterce and the mag- 

 nificient butterfly Argynnis nitocris nigroctzrulea, both found in Sapello 

 Canon. 



The Gallinas River, flowing through Las Vegas, contains a crawfish 

 (Camburus gallinus), described as new last year, some interesting fishes 

 (Leuciscus and Rhinichthys), and a variety of acquatic insects, algae, etc. 



