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THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



FIELD NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 



The Insect Fauna of the New Jersey Coast. 



The coastal strip of New Jersey, which is that portion of the 

 state bordering on the Atlantic Ocean, consists of the beach front 

 and the sand hills immediately back of it, the marshlands lying 

 between the beach and the mainland and various islands composed 

 of different types of soil found chiefly in the southern portion of 

 the coastal strip. These islands contain sandy areas, some agri- 

 cultural land, salt marsh, cedar and sphagnum swamps, and have 

 a varied flora. As a result, their insect fauna is correspondingly 

 rich and many species occur there which are also found throughout 

 the state. 



The following information, compiled from Smith's "Insects of 

 New Jersey," gives one an idea of the characteristic insect fauna 

 of the marshlands and beach, both of which have been fairly well 

 collected over. The Odonata of the beach number nine species, 

 representing three families, and of the marshland, two species 

 from two families. In the Homoptera, thirteen species occur on 

 the marshland, seven of which belong to the Jassidse, five to the- 

 Fulgorida?, and one to the Coccidse, while none is found on the 

 beach. 



The Hemiptera is poorly represented on both beach and 

 marshland, one family and two species being found on the former 

 and two families and two species on the latter. The Orthoptera 

 of the beach number five species and two families, and of the marsh- 

 land, seven species and two families. Of the Coleoptera, seventy- 

 one species and twenty-two families occur on the beach and fifty- 

 six species and fourteen families on the marshland, this order being 

 the best represented on the coastal strip. Of the seventy-one 

 species on the beach, seventeen belong to the Carabidse, and of the 

 fifty-six on the marshland, thirty-one belong to the same family. 



The Lepidoptera is poorly represented on the beach by one 

 species and one family, but on the marshland, eleven species and 

 five families are found. In the Diptera, six species belonging to 

 the family Tabanidae are found on the beach, while on the marshland 

 twelve species, representing the two families, Culicidse and Taban- 

 idae, occur. 



