460 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Dec , '08 



as if scenting out its next day's habitat. Its goal is a small 

 rotten or semi-decadent root of oak. With its fore-tibiae it 

 digs a half-inch perpendicular shaft to a depth of from four 

 to nine inches and in its work it is not bradycinetus, slow- mov- 

 ing, bttf very rapid. The excavated soil is pushed to the sur- 

 face where it forms a mound two inches in median depth and 

 four inches in diameter. This mound is like a pile of broken 

 encrinite stems or "ropes of sand." When a pair are at work 

 together the shaft is (as in illustration) packed with soil at 

 the top to a depth of an inch. Usually when a male is work- 

 ing alone the shaft is open to the surface as if awaiting a 

 female and reciprocally this is often so when the female is 

 alone. I have never found two of the same sex under the 

 same mound. The season for working is here from early 

 June to late August, but from a hundred diggings I have seen 

 no sign of a nest nor have I found even one egg. Moreover, 

 I have examined many females freshly killed and have only 

 one mass which I take to be an egg. It is white, globular and 

 one-sixteenth inch in diameter. 



I have not seen any species of Bradycinetus except fcr- 

 ruginens. I have not seen any species of Bolboccras except 

 lacarns. Yet I feel sure that these two species should be 

 placed in the same genus and the generic name be Bolboccras 

 as the antennae of fcrntgincus are as truly bulb-shaped as 

 those of lasarus and they are not Bradycinetus or slow-moving. 

 The two species are more nearly alike except as to size than 

 splendens and antaciis the two species of Stratcgits which oc- 

 cur here. Moreover, Bolboccras lazanis builds a mound and 

 shaft precisely like ferrugineus except that they are propor- 

 tionately smaller, the mound two inches in diameter of stems 

 or ropes of soil and the shaft a quarter inch. 



B. lazarns is reported to me as : Common in both Hemi- 

 spheres ; a scavenger; nothing known of habits except that it 

 has been found under decadent leaves. My illustration will 

 disclose what little I have learned of this species. It may 

 guide observers in other localities to a larger knowledge. 

 Though it must propagate in decadent matter it cannot truly 



