NOV., '08] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 425 



at the side of the road. There was no water in this but the 

 soil was damp and again ants were running over the surface. 

 I watched them not thinking at all of my former experience 

 and the little Saldiid, when suddenly I saw an alien among the 

 others and soon captured it. It was the same big-eyed little 

 imp I had taken at Punta Gorda or seemed so to me. But 

 I searched vainly for other specimens. That summer when 

 sending some Hemiptera to Prof. Herbert Osborn I put into 

 the box my two Saldiids. Prof. Osborn at once decided that 

 they represented an undescribed genus and also two different 

 species. These he described Can. Entom. Vol. xxxii, p. 181. 

 The genus he named Saldoida, the two species, respectively, 

 slossoni and connita. I visited Florida every winter after this 

 and always searched for my agile, mud-loving treasures but in 

 vain. I had, however, discovered in an old box of duplicates, 

 one damaged specimen of Saldoida, about whose capture I 

 could remember nothing. It was labelled simply "Florida." 

 At this specimen I often looked to refresh my memory as to the 

 general appearance of the rare insect and with ardent hopes 

 that I might sometime again find similar species. 



I was detained in the North during the two winters of 1904- 

 1905 and 1905-06 and thought that I should never again visit 

 Florida. But an attack of grippe last December changed my 

 ideas and I decided to go a little later to the west coast, select- 

 ing Belleair on Clearwater Harbor for my headquarters. This 

 is about twenty-five miles west of Tampa and a charming spot. 

 I reached there on January 22d, found few signs of spring 

 and almost no insects. 



It was an unusually backward, tardy season, the nights cold 

 and even frosty until late in February. But just before the 

 advent of March the warm weather came very suddenly and 

 animal and vegetable life became abundant. 



A few weeks before coming South I had received a letter 

 from Dr. Otto Heidemann telling me that Prof. Renter of 

 Finland was anxious to examine specimens of Saldoida while 

 engaged in study of the family. I dared not risk sending my 

 precious unique across the seas and told Dr. Heidemann so. 



