PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 21, NO. 8, NOV., 1919 189 



the dredge and bunk house. It might be stated that evidences 

 of deer are common on the prairies, hence the presence of deer- 

 flies (Chrysops] is easily explained. 



After leaving the dredge we ran a straight compass course for 

 Cape Sable through the lower hammocks, lagoons of White Water 

 Bay, and across the saw grass prairies. North of West Lake 

 adults of Tabanns lineola and Chrysops flavidus and plangens 

 Wied., a small dark species, were captured. Our intention had 

 been to make an exploration and collecting trip to Cape Sable, 

 but due to the very rough travel and limited time, we decided to 

 turn back. We were forced to hack our way with a machette 

 through the low but dense and almost impenetrable hammocks, 

 and the low thickets of aerial roots of the red mangrove. It 

 was necessary also to wade through lagoons up to our waists in 

 mud and water, and finally to make our way through high saw 

 grass (a sedge Cladium ejjusum}. 



Night comes very suddenly in the tropics and sub-tropics and 

 we made camp on one of the higher hammocks; after the she t 

 dusk, fire flies appeared. During this night of February 25, we 

 were able to sleep by using our insect sweeping nets to protect 

 our hands and faces from mosquitoes The usual night cries of 

 wild life broke the stillness. We could also hear the pounding 

 of surf. 



The Lower Everglades or grassy marsh lands south of Lake 

 Okeechobee, and in general south of latitude 27, have a humid, 

 tropical flora. As Gifford (1911) points out, 1 this latitude is the 

 same as that of Egypt. The region south of Paradise Key to- 

 wards Cape Sable is still wild; as the region immediately north 

 of West Lake is approached, the low morass is more frequently 

 dotted here and there with beautiful, green hardwood ham- 

 mocks, the elevation of the ground being slightly higher than 

 the saw grass prairie. 



The edges of some of the first hammocks encountered south of 

 Paradise Key were strikingly fringed with bald cypress trees which 

 late in February, 1919, were mostly bare of foliage. Against the 

 background of the green foliaged hardwood trees in the ham- 

 mock, these bare, grey cypress stood out like "ghost" trees, and 

 appeared white as if frosted, especially so in the early morning 

 fog just after dawn, when the sun first struck them. 



Farther south, clumps of the beautiful saw-cabbage palmetto 

 Panrotis wrightii appeared in the hammocks. Other trees were 

 cocoa plum, poison wood (Metopiwn), sweet bay, bay berry, 

 white mangrove, red mangrove, and cabbage palmetto. The red 



1 Gifford, J., "The Everglades and Southern Florida." Miami, 1911. 



