March, '05] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 71 



Do you wonder that day after day of the winter and early 

 spring found me at this happy hunting ground and that when 

 I am remembering the busy hours in far off Miami and wish- 

 ing, now it is too late, that I had kept a fuller record of my 

 field work there, a journal, a calender, a daily diary, I satisfy 

 my New England conscience by saying to myself in nautical 

 phrase, " Well, at any rate, I kept a log." 



Notes on some Californian Buprestidae. 



BY H. C. FALL. 



One of the rarest and finest of the Californian Buprestides 

 is the beautiful green Dysta.\ia murrayi. This species is 

 rather widely dispersed in the southern part of the State, 

 occuring on live oaks both on the desert and seaward sides of 

 the mountains, but is not often taken by collectors. Imagine 

 then the satisfaction of the writer when on a visit to Dr. F. 

 E. Blaisdell of San Francisco, the Doctor in exhibiting his 

 treasures opened a box containing a fine series of Dystaxias 

 taken by himself at San Diego, from which he generously 

 selected a set for my own collection. On placing the new 

 specimens beside my single previous example I noticed that 

 they were of a somewhat more brilliant green but made no 

 further comparison at the time. Later 1113- attention was called 

 by Dr. Fenyes to the fact that Blaisdell's species, of which he 

 had just obtained specimens, did not agree with his supposed 

 murrayi, and a very brief comparison sufficed to show that 

 they were indeed unmistakably distinct, though superficially 

 remarkably similar. 



On examining the series of Dystaxia at the National Mu- 

 seum the past summer, the new species was found as I had 

 anticipated, mixed with murrayi, and it is not unlikely that it 

 stands thus in other collections. It may be briefly char- 

 acterized by comparison with murrayi as follows : 



Dystaxia elegans n. sp. 



Very similar to murrayi in size, form, color and sculpture, but when 

 compared more attentively the present species is seen to be slightly 

 smaller on the average, the color a more brilliant j;iten, the elytra widest 



