2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 124 



In 1964 and 1965, the junior author had the opportunity to collect 

 in three distinct sites in the western and central ranges of the Colom- 

 bian Andes in climates considered temperate to subalpine. 



One site was the Finca Carpenteria in the municipality of El Tambo, 

 Department of Cauca, on the eastern slope of the western cordillera 

 at an elevation of 2500 m. In this area, patches of temperate hardwood 

 forest surrounded by grasslands covered the slopes and crests of the 

 mountains. Collections of Culicoides were made in one patch of forest 

 with the aid of light traps and a Shannon tent trap. 



A second collecting site (pi. 2 : top) was located in the central 

 cordillera at Lago Buey (also known locally as Lago San Rafael), 

 15 km east of the town of Purace\ Department of Cauca, in what is 

 referred to as the Paramo de Purace. This site was near the edge of a 

 shallow lake at one side of a paramo meadow at 3250 m. Only human 

 bait collections were made in the open, wet, grassy meadow. Also near 

 this site at 3320 m, 18 km east of Purace, a light trap was operated 

 in a small cluster of trees on the edge of the paramo meadow. 



A third site (pi. 2: bottom) was located in the central cordillera 

 near the Paramo de Purace in an area that has a distinctly different 

 ecology. There, 28.4 km east of Purace* at about 3150 m, an elevation 

 somewhat lower than the paramo meadows, the site was a luxuriant 

 subalpine forest abounding with mosses and epiphytes, including 

 orchids and bromeliads. Collections were made here with human bait 

 and by light traps. 



In Chapman's (1917) outline of the life zones of the Colombian 

 Andes, these collecting sites fall within the upper levels of the Sub- 

 tropical Zone and the lower Temperate Zone. In Espinal's and Mon- 

 tenegro's (1963) outline of the plant formations of Colombia, based 

 on the Holdridge world system of classification, these sites would be 

 classified as "very humid low montane forest," "low montane rain 

 forest," and "montane rain forest." We are much indebted to Sr. 

 Espinal for his kindness in furnishing us an ecological description of 

 the areas in which these collecting sites are located. From this account 

 the following two paragraphs are abstracted. 



West of the town of El Tambo, on the route from Popayan to Guapi, 

 Department of Cauca, the terrain is, first, a series of undulating hills 

 at an elevation of 2000 to 2500 m, where the original "very humid low 

 montane forest" has been replaced by grasslands for cattle grazing. 

 The average annual rainfall here is between 2500 and 3000 mm, and 

 the average temperature between 15° and 17° C. Above 2500 m, the 

 Cerro de Munchique of the western cordillera rises abruptly to a very 

 rainy mountain region classified as "low montane rain forest" (average 

 annual rainfall above 4000 mm), where the trees are covered with 

 dense growth of mosses, lichens, and epiphytes. 



