126 



THE CANADIAN ENTOAIOI.OGIST 



A NEW SPECIES OF FRIESEA (COLLEMBOLA). 



BY CHARLES MACNAMARA, . . 

 Arnijrior, Ontario. 



There are no such things as equinoctial gales. More of our old friends 



are gone. They have been sent by the metereologists to try vainly of course — 



to blow William Tell's arrow from its mark or to flutter the Lincoln green 



cloak of Robin Hood, in that limbo of lo-t ilki.'^ions where the moon controls 

 the weather, and fixes the time when we should kill the pig; and where all the 

 animals know if the snow is going to be deep next winter. 



Therefore, although it occurred within a few days of the March equinox 

 a couple of years ago, the gale that blew the top off a large maple in Elliott's 

 sugar bush near Arnprior must be named without any qualification in respect 

 of the time of year it happened. But it may be fairly recorded as an example 

 of the proverbial ill wind; for if it blew Mr. Elliott no good in breaking the top 

 off his tree, it led me to the always pleasing discovery of a new species. 



The fallen top was about ten feet long by eight or ten inches in diameter. 

 It had broken from a tree some 75 feet high, and its few stubby branches were 

 smashed off in coming down. I chanced on it within twenty-four hours after 

 it fell. The temperature was a little above freezing, but the day wa.^ raw and 

 overcast, and there was still three or four inches or hard crusted snow on the 

 ground. It was the moss on the bark that first attracted me. Moss means 

 moisture, and moisture means springtails. It is strange how enormously stand- 

 ards of value differ. A dozy log with loose mossy bark is an absolutely worth- 

 less "dead cull" to a lumberman, while to a Collembolan hunter it is a delight- 

 ful and valuable find. The bark on this log proved to be loose only in spots, 

 but here and there under the flakes were considerable numbers of the white 

 cast skins of Collembolans, an unfailing indication of the gregarious kinds, al- 

 though as the skins may persist for several years, they are often present long 

 after the colonv that shed them has become extinct. But close examination 

 with a magnifier presently discovered some very small slow pellid springtails, 

 which I put down as a species of Xenylla ; and young Xenylla maritima Tullb. — 

 apparently about quarter grown — they turned out to be when I got them under 

 the microscope at home that night. Not a very exciting capture this, as X. 

 maritima is common under bark around here. 



On a cold rainy day a week later I reached the sugar bush again ; and 

 although it had yielded nothing of interest before, somehow I gravitated to 

 the fallen top once more. This time, besides a few additional specimens of 

 the tiny Xenyllans, I captured half a dozen handsome olive-green Isotoma de- 

 terminata MacG., another not infrequent bark dweller in my district. Then I 

 found a single light grey Collembolan, small but strongly built, and further 

 searching resulted in three more of them. They were all numb with the cold 

 when I picked them up, but in the vial they livened up a bit, and began to 

 walk around. 



I did not recognize them for any springtail I knew, though they looked a 

 little like an Achorutes. But determination of Collembola in the field is very 

 uncertain, and two or three times my supposed prize has turned out to be only 



