Vol. xxii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



Collecting in Southern Arizona. 

 By KARL R. COOLIDGE, Ceres, California. 



One would scarcely think when viewing through a car win- 

 dow the barren saline alkali plains of southern Arizona and the 

 various mountain stocks that loom up on all sides, that such a 

 region could afford anything of particular interest to the ento- 

 mologist. Yet these mountains, and especially the Huachucas. 

 are as rich, if not richer than any other collecting grounds in 

 the United States. 



For the past thirty years or more, naturalists have collected 

 here in all branches of biology, but new and interesting discov- 

 eries invariably greet the latest arrival, and it will be many 

 years before we shall have obtained a satisfactory faunal 

 knowledge. As we have no way of judging the future but by 

 the past, I may presume then that in the coming years ento- 

 mologists will continue to visit this region, and my object in 

 presenting the article is that it may be of some service to fu- 

 ture collectors. For, having strenuously gone through the mill 

 myself, I can assure the intending entomologist that experi- 

 ence as a teacher here exacts heavy dues, and unless one is ac- 

 quainted with the country and the conditions governed by its 

 environment, he may lose much precious time, and otherwise 

 suffer undesirable inconveniences. 



The Huachuca Mountains, on the Sierra Espuela, as they 

 were termed by the early explorers, lie in the extreme south- 

 west corner of Cochise County, and are almost wholly within 

 the United States, extending from the International line in a 

 northerly and somewhat westerly direction to a distance of 

 about forty miles, reaching the Barbcomari River, which 

 empties into the San Pedro at Fairbanks. The range is com- 

 posed of a single backbone or ridge, the highest point of which 

 is Hasslops, or Miller Peak as it is better known, an elevation 

 of 9472 feet, and the mountains rise to this from a base level 

 of nearly 5000 feet. The western canyons are quite short and 

 with little or no water, as the slope on that side is steep and 

 rugged. On the eastern slope, however, the canyons are broad- 



