THE CiLNADIAJy' ENTOMOLOGIST. 199 



THE GOLDEN SNOW-FLEA, APHORURA COCKLE/, N. SP. 



BY JUSTUS W. FOLSOM, URBANA, ILL. 

 (Plate 5.) 



In British Columbia there is a minute yellow Collembolan that 

 appears in crowds so dense as to cover the snow with a carpet of gold. 



This species was discovered by Mr. J. W. Cockle, of Kaslo, B. C, 

 whose specimens and data sent to Doctor Fletcher were by him referred 

 to the writer. 



The literature on Collembola contains many references to snow-fleas, 

 and one author, Dr. R, Latzel, has made a convenient summary of all that 

 has been written on the subject (Carinthia, II, Nos. 5 and 6, Mitt. Naturh. 

 Landesm. Karnten, 1907). 



In the United States only " black " snovy-fleas have figured in the 

 literature, and the species that has done most to deserve the name of 

 snow-flea is Achoiutes nivtcola, Fitch (see Psyche, Vol. 9, p, 315), a dark 

 blue species that swarms on the snow every year, in Massachusetts and 

 New York, and doubtless elsewhere. It is not often reported, however, 

 since it becomes active at a season when most of the collectors are still 

 dormant. 



When most of the insects also are hibernating, Collembola are 

 active — even before Boieiis appears, and before the winter species of 

 Perlid?e, Culicidae, Chironomidse, Bibionid^e and Muscidae are on the 

 wing. Collembola revive at a temperature that is too low to arouse other 

 insects ; in the Arctic region they flourish when other insects fail. 



During his experience of many years in the mountains, Mr. Cockle 

 saw this golden snow-flea for the first time in 1906, and again in 1908; and 

 his inquiries among men who spend most of their time among the snows 

 have not enlightened him as to the occurrence of the species in other 

 localities. He has not found it on his summer trips among the glaciers ; 

 in fact, he has found it only at Kaslo, on a steep bank one hundred feet 

 above the river, at an altitude of 2,250 feet, and surmises that it came 

 from the river. None of the Collembola are known to be aquatic in their 

 development, however, though some of them frequent the surface of 

 water, and most of them require a moist atmosphere ; and the snow-fleas 

 develop in the soil or under loose bark or moss. This genus Aphorura is 

 essentially, but not altogether, terrestrial ; but the black snow-fleas of the 

 genus AcJiorutes develop under bark, as a rule, where they can be found 

 in the dead of winter, long before they appear on the snow. 



June, igo8 



