June, 1909.] Ohio Forms of the Genus Lepidoeyrtus. 529 



Description of Ohio Species: — No attempt has been made 

 to give a complete bibliography of the species, only the original 

 and the principal American works being cited. 



Lepidocyrtus Pusillus (Linn.) PI. XXVIII. 

 1767. Podura pusilla Linn. Syst. Nat. Vol. XII. II, pg. 1014. 

 1873. Lepidocyrtus pusillus. Packard. Syn. Thys. Essex Co., 



Mass. pg. 37. 

 1891. Lepidocyrtus pusillus. MacGillivray. Canad. Ent., Vol. 



XXIII, pg. 272. 

 1903. Lepidocyrtus pusillus. Guthrie. Coll. of Minn., pg. 88. 



(Description taken from living specimens.) 



Color: bluish-bronze or copper, varying from a yellowish tinge in some 

 specimens to bright iridescent bhie in freshly molted ones. The prevaihng 

 color is bronze, but the scales are so brightly iridescent that the same 

 specimen may at one time appear bronze, at another blue. Antennae : 

 blue, basal segment more yellowish in tint ; the blue color of the antennae 

 always retained in mounted specimens; basal segment short, II and III of 

 the same length, IV not quite so long as II and III taken together. Eyes: 

 black; six, possibly eight, ocelli; eye spots plainly visible from dorsal 

 surface at bases of antennae. Various long hairs are found scattered over 

 the body. A long bent hair is situated on either side of abdominal seg- 

 ments iV and V. Mesonotum in dorsal view a little over three times as 

 long as metanotum. Abdominal segment IV, four and one-half times as 

 long as III. Legs: tarsi with two claws, both curving in the same direc- 

 tion; two teeth on larger claw, the distal one just opposite the apex of the 

 smaller claw, the other midway between the distal tooth and the base of 

 larger claw; long hairs present on both femur and tibia. Spring: tinged 

 with blue, mucrones nearly white; manubrium quite a little shorter than 

 dentes, very hairy, dentes long, slender, curved at apex, with sub-annula- 

 tions on ventral surface ; mucrones with two hooks, the apical one long and 

 slender, a spur extending from base of mucrone to opposite point of ante- 

 apical hook ; two long, barbed hairs extending from dentes to below end of 

 mucrones ; other long, curved hairs found scattered over dentes. Length 

 1-1.5 mm. 



Habits: rather a solitary species, quite common among dead 

 leaves, and under bark, but not in as wet situations as many 

 Collembola. When a jar containing dead leaves and rotten 

 wood is brought into the laboratory these insects almost invariably 

 collect in the dryer material on top. If kept in a cell with an 

 excess of moisture they soon die. One specimen measuring 1.5 

 mm. was kept in a little earthen cell covered with a watch 

 crystal for two months, from the first of March until the first of 

 May. Before molting it appeared decidedly bronze to the 

 naked eye, but afterwards the blues and purples were quite 

 noticeable. Molting took place about ever}^ seven or eight days. 

 So many varying descriptions of this species occur with contra- 

 dictory characters that it is quite impossible to be positive as 

 to the proper identification of specimens. The mesonotum 

 does not project as it does in the extreme forms of Lepidocyrtus, 

 although the head is always partially concealed. We believe 



