112 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Nov. 



scattered grains of gunpowder on the snow near the foci from 

 which they spread. They tumble into every slight depression, 

 and as their movements are rather aimless they do not readily 

 escape from such situations, and every little hollow in the snow 

 is black with them. A friend tells me that he once saw them 

 near the Deschenes Rapids in such quantities that they could 

 have been scooped up in spoonfuls. Of course, as they spread 

 o-at they become much more thinly scattered. Their progress 

 is slow and apparently rather haphazard, and their distribiition 

 is influenced a good deal b)- the wind, but their general move- 

 ment is always towards open spaces. A day or two of favorable 

 weather enables them to spread over a large area of country. 

 I have seen them extending to a distance of a half mile from 

 the shore on the ice of the Ottawa River, and on an eight-mile 

 walk on the 26th March, 1914, they were found scattered every- 

 where over fields, clearings, beaver-meadows and lake. 



The object of these migrations is not very apparent, and 

 there is no doubt that the vast majority of the migrants perish 

 in the snoAv before reaching any goal; but possibly inter-breed- 

 ing is thus prevented and the racial benefit so derived more 

 than counterbalances the immense destruction of individuals. 



On the 24th April, 1Q14, by which date the snow had all 

 gone, I found large numbers of A. nivicola under chi]os in a 

 damp place on the shore of Chats Lake. The insects were 

 gathered in masses, and to the naked eye, looked like patches 

 of dark blue powder. I collected some in a vial, loosely filled 

 with damp moss, and on the 2 7th, they laid from seventy- 

 five to one hundred tiny, spherical, yellowish, eggs in lots of 

 fifteen or twenty, something like bunches of grapes. These 

 hatched out on the 9th May, an incubation period of twelve 

 days. The young emerged perfect, (none of the Oollembola 

 undergo any metamor])hosis), but instead of the blue-black of 

 the adult, they were yellowish-white in color with conspicuous 

 dark eye spots. They were exceeding!}' active, and kept con- 

 tinually running and jumping about in their bottle. The adults 

 all died about this time and the young survived them onlv a 

 few davs. A. nivicola disappears from its winter haunts dur- 

 ing the summer, and is ver\^ hard to find between Mav and 

 November, but this is not sur]-)rising, as the insect is so small 

 that unless it occurs in very large numbers, it is difiicult to 

 discover without the white background of the snow to betrav 



