70 



cannot compare it well with ours. I really think ours is a 

 variety produced by the climate, but I may think otherwise 

 to-morrow. The question has puzzled me as much as you. 

 You will observe this fact, however, that several of our insects 

 are much larger than yours. I have a Rhaglum liyieatum 

 which is -^ inch in length. Several species of Biiprestis are 

 in the same case. 



As to ChremastocheiU, I can assure you that of all the trees 

 on this hill, there is none which I have searched with more care 

 than the chinquapin, and yet I have never found on it, or 

 about it, one of the species of that genus. I have often stood 

 hours around a single bush when the blossoms were out, as 

 myriads of insects crowd there. I have found several Ohre- 

 mastocheiU flying in the day time and alighting on the hottest 

 side of a barren hill of red clay. But the ants, as at Round 

 Hill, have had the goodness to supply me with living ones, 

 which they carried off without any resistance. The difficulty 

 in findincT the habitation of these reminds me that Bosc seems to 

 have made a mistake, if he is the person who supposed that 

 BoIetopJiac/7is cornutus fed on the Boleti of this country. I 

 have collected a great number of the ^ and 9 , and know so 

 well the place which they inhabit, that if you should place me 

 in the dark, before a pine stump which contains any of them, I 

 could at once lay my hands on them. It is only in pine stumps 

 or loos wliich are considerably decayed, and in which the bark 

 is quite loose, that they may be found. At that part Avhere 

 the rubbish accumulates, Avhich falls between the bark and the 

 crumblino- wood, where there is a crust, as it were, of decayed 

 vegetable substance, there are they always found, and in no 

 other place whatever. They have good wings under their 

 shells, but, though I may be mistaken, I believe their elytra 

 are not intended to separate, for they open Avith some difficulty. 



Have you Biccelus purpiiratiis Say ? It seems to me certain 

 now that the insect you sent me at Northampton is not Diccelus 

 elongatm. I will copy for you the notes on this subject from 

 my journal. 



