54 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



The writer's observations on this species were made at Great 

 Falls, over the same area where Fisher had found the species, and 

 on the evening of May 3, 1916, several days after Fisher's obser\a- 

 tions. The insects did not appear until it was quite dark — about 

 8.00 p.m. — when numbers of them were seen along the top of the 

 bluff, some forty or fifty feet high, which marks the former river 

 bank at this point. On ascending this bluff, the insects were found 

 to be flying around in the foliage, principalK- from ten to twenty 

 feet above ground, flashing at intervals of five to ten seconds; they 

 soon became very plentiful. At first their flight appeared to be 

 entirely aimless, and even long and close watching failed to reveal 

 any replies to the flashes from females on bark or twigs, but present- 

 ly a fainter occasional flash was observed on a trunk about 8 feet 

 above ground, where the brighter flashes of the males had already 

 been observed. It soon appeared that the fainter flash emanated 

 from a point between two males, each of the latter some six or eight 

 inches from the faint flashes. An electric flashlight revealed an 

 imago of this species on the bark, but just out of reach ; it cannot be 

 stated positively that this was a female, but the conduct of the faint 

 flashes points strongly in that direction, as the fainter flash was 

 several times observed to follow closely flashes from one of the two 

 males; it did not follow all of these flashes, which may have been 

 due to the irregularities in the bark hiding the flashes of the male 

 at times. The males, as was found later, on alighting near a sup- 

 posed female, run fairly rapidly over the area, apparently in search 

 of her. In this case, the male lower down on the bark was cap- 

 tured and identified. They were still flying and flashing an hour 

 after the first observation, apparently as thickly as at first, this 

 conduct resembles Photuris more than Phot inns — indeed, except 

 that the light is not quite as green to the writer's eye, the flight of 

 this species suggests that of Photuris. 



The flash of the male is a single, rather short and intense flash, 

 followed in many instances, though not in all, by a \'ery faint, slow 

 or "trailing" secondary flash. This secondary flash varied greatly 

 with different individuals, being in some cases so distinct as to 

 suggest the double flash of Photinus consanguineiis, while in other 

 specimens it was apparently absent. The males, when approach- 

 ing a supposed female, usually, though not always, exhibit a faint, 



