106 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



vicinity of a Cicindela locality always proves productive, and that large 

 numbers will congregate from all parts to seek their winter homes in such 

 places. The hole, however, should be dug a month or more before the 

 hibernating season commences. 



In digging, the beetles loosen the earth with their mandibles, and use 

 one leg at a time when kicking the earth back. For the first three to 

 eight inches the hole is dug at an angle, after which it usually goes down 

 in an almost perpendicular direction, though it often happens that when 

 starting after an interval of rest the beetles will take a slightly different 

 direction, so that the hole is never straight, but turns first one way and 

 then another. For the first six to fifteen inches the earth is thrown out, 

 but after this depth is reached the hole is gradually filled in moderately 

 tightly. From four to ten inches being left unfilled at the bottom to 

 enable the beetle to work its way out. 



The hole is nearly always wide enough at all points to allow the 

 beetle to turn round, and is always so at the bottom. When the hole is 

 com])leted, the beetle turns round and faces the top, ready for' digging its 

 way out the next spring, when it emerges in practically as perfect 

 condition as when it went in. 



A few species, and these closely related, probably dig below the usual 

 frost line, but many do not, as I have dug out several kinds that were in 

 the solid frozen ground and were quite motionless, and which took fully 

 half an hour to become even moderately active in a warm place. All the 

 hibernating forms become sluggish, and eventually torpid as the earth gets 

 cold and frozen. 



There are, no doubt, many belonging to this group that never leave 

 their winter homes, especially those kinds that inhabit localities close to 

 water. In fact, it is by no means an uncommon occurrence to find dead 

 specimens of the previous year when digging out live ones. Hundreds 

 were found hibernating in 1906 only five feet above low-water mark in the 

 banks of the Assiniboine River, which the rise of the water in the spring 

 would almost surely totally destroy. 



The second of our groups contains strictly summer species, which do 

 not pass the winter in the imago stage, but only as larvip, possibly as 

 pupa- or ova. There are, however, in ihe Ignited States some species that 

 are jirobably intermediate between the two groui)s, which either pass the 

 winter in very shallow holes or under stones, fallen trees, etc., but these, 

 though difficult to distinguish from the summer species, strictly belong to 

 our first group. 



