40 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



black that it made there, I should never have detected it; as it 

 was, my eye was arrested by a sense of design, and, focusing on 

 the patch, at once unmasked the live insect; a moment more, 

 and the longicorn was betrayed by its antennae ; these were thrown 

 back over the creature's body and lowered almost to the space be- 

 tween its elytra and the up-gathered legs, in an attitude I soon 

 came to know as entirely characteristic. 



The insect was about the size of Graphisurus fasciatus or 

 Hoplosia niibila, robust and somewhat convex, but tapering to- 

 wards the tip (being both narrowed at the sides and declivous 

 above) ; it reminded me considerably of Leptostylus sex-guttatus, 

 but was larger and quite strongly armed at the sides of the thorax ; 

 when tested by LeConte and Horn, but for one important point, 

 it seemed to be undoubtedly Liopns; and in that genus it could 

 only be variegatus, for all the other species were too smalk None 

 of the authorities described my form of the insect in detail, though 

 reference was made to a variety obscurus which seemed to corres- 

 pond; I had some specimens in my cabinet from New Jersey 

 and New York labeled L. variegatus, and they were all yellowish- 

 brown mottled, while mine was gre^'-black mottled; but what 

 troubled me most was the point in LeConte and Horn -.Liopns should 

 have no trace of ciliate hairs beneath the antennae, and this beetle 

 — especially on the 3rd joint — showed a fringe of from 3 to 6 

 hairs. On examining my specimens from New Jersey I found 

 them without trace of ciliae, but on the New York specimens I 

 found one or two such hairs. I have captured nearly a dozen 

 since then, and all show traces of ciliae, some quite as strongly as 

 Hyper platys, nor can I place my insect in any other genus. I, 

 therefore, infer that the rule-of-thumb distinction between ciliate 

 and non-ciliate genera does not apph- to the fauna of our northerly 

 latitudes*. 



I was so much encouraged by this find that I determined in 

 future to turn over every billet in the 3 rows that made the wood- 

 pile. I went there the very next morning, July 12th, and pro- 

 ceeded to do my chore. From the top to the bottom was fully 8 

 layers deep and it took just about 219 hours to turn over every 



*I find this inference corroborated by specimens of Liopus cinerens and L. 

 alpha captured near Pcterlxirough, F. M. 



