G4 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



is a little moisture ; these long droughts and the comparative scarcity of 

 food undoubtedly have dwarfed them, and living in clear water clinging to 

 stones has called into exercise a potential element that seems to inhere in 

 many insects of accommodating their colours to their surroundings. The 

 black colour of the mud-inhabiting race would make them too conspicuous, 

 so they have changed it to sober gray to correspond with the general colour 

 of the stones and bottom of the brook. 



Oxyporus 5-maculatus Lee. Seven other species of this genus occur 

 here more or less abundantly from the middle of August onward, all living 

 on various species of living mushrooms ; but 5-maculatus appears to be 

 rare, as I have only taken it three times — two at a time, and like the 

 others, feeding on mushrooms, but in June, and on rocky, mountainous 

 places. It differs remarkably from the other species by having the sides 

 of the thorax posteriorly so compressed as to elevate the disk at the mid- 

 dle of each side at base into a flattened tubercle in such a way as to 

 make the expression, "thorax posteriorly concave," not inippropriate. 



Deudrocharis flavicomis Guer. A specimen of this curious insect, 

 now in the cabinet of Dr. Horn, was recently taken near St. Augustine, 

 Florida, by Mr. Charles W. Johnson, who dug it out of a tree. This is 

 the only native specimen in any of our collections so far as known. See 

 figure and description, Tr. Am. Ent. Soc, xiii., 12. 



Merist Jais. If the definition of this genus in the Classification, 

 " Front tarsal grooves wanting," is correct, the two sjecies under it in the 

 Catalogue should be placed under Lacon, as they have these grooves deep. 

 I suspected a misprint of " tarsal " for tibial, but a careful examination 

 shows the existence of these grooves quite evidently in some specimens 

 of cri status, though obsoletely so in others. There seems to be little 

 need of the genus anyhow. 



Dicerca pro'ongata Lee. and D. divaricata Say. A single character 

 that will in all cases separate these species infallibly is something not yet 

 in print. The prolongation and degree of divarication of the elytra are 

 the same in both ; a typical specimen of the former kindly sent me by 

 Mr. Ulke, collected in Dakota, has the tips of the elytrons as widely 

 separated as in divaricata, while on the other hand I have a specimen of 

 the latter with the tips very prolonged and contiguous to near the end 

 (D. dubia Mels.) The depth and distinctness of the thoracic channel is 

 not a character to be depended on ; my type of prolongata has a very 

 deep and uninterrupted channel, but I have a specimen of the other taken 



