128 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



is killed, as soon as the body begins to cool. I have myself pre- 

 viously examined numerous specimens of the same genus of mam- 

 mals in a search for ectoparasites but without result, but as all 

 my specimens were examined some time after death it is possible 

 that the beetles had already departed and that they may occur 

 much more frequently than the lack of collecting records would 

 indicate. 



STUDIES OF CANADIAN SPIDERS IN SUMMER OF 1917. 



BY J. H. EMERTON, BOSTON, MASS. 



In the past summer I have continued the collection of Canadian 

 spiders north and west of the region covered in 1915 and 1916, 

 in the great bog country south and west of Hudson Bay, which 

 has now been made accessible by the Grand Trunk Transcon- 

 tinental line and the Hudson Bay railways. Starting in the latter 

 part of June it seemed best to visit the most northern points first, 

 and so in company with Mr. J. B. Wallis.of Winnipeg, I arrived 

 at The Pas, June 30, and took the next train down the Hudson Bay 

 Railway on July 4. The country all the way is nearly flat, de- 

 scending from about 800 feet at The Pas to 350 feet at Kettle 

 Rapids, 330 miles distant, and the present end of the road. It is 

 covered with a thick layer of sphagnum moss in which grows a 

 forest of small spruce with undergrowth of Labrador Tea and 

 Mountain Cranberry. The drainage is naturally slow, and large 

 and small lakes cover much of the country, connected by streams 

 through which the summer travel of the country is carried on. 

 After a few days at The Pas our next stop was at the railroad camp 

 at mile 214, where we spent nearly a week, then at mile 256 where 

 there is a large area of gravel rising to twenty feet above the general 

 level and then to Kettle Rapids, where we collected for a week 

 in the neighbouring bog and on the river banks. The spiders are 

 for the most part, those which have been long known in the bogs 

 of Maine and Labrador, the tops of the White Mountains or the 

 Rocky Mountains. The most conspicuous species are the three 

 cobweb spiders of the spruce trees, Theridion zelotypum, Linypliia 

 limitanea and Linyphia nearctia. T. zelotypum covers the whole 

 area from Kettle Rapids on the north to Minoki and Cochrane 



April, 1918 



