A LIST OF THE BEETLP:S OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



By Henry I^lke. 



I. INTRODUCTION. 



The following- list of the Coleoptera of the District of Columbia is 

 the result of a diligent search extending over a period of nearly forty 

 years. 



In the fifties, the city of Washington was still surrounded by man}^ 

 fine woods and loyel}" meadows, which promised the entomologist and 

 l)otanist a rich harvest. In truth, almost every collecting excursion 

 in those days furnished abundant new material and raised the interest 

 and enthusiasm of the collector to a high pitch. 



With the beginning of our civil war, the woods on the Virginia side 

 of the Potomac began to disappear, and not many years later the 

 pleasant fields and woods north and northwest of the city were occu- 

 pied by citv extensions, avenues, and building lots, so that one hunt- 

 ing ground after the other was captured by advancing civilization. 



Nevertheless the right bank of the Potomac, between the Aqueduct 

 Bridge and Little Falls, remained a rich field for the collector until 

 quite recently, when it, too, began to suffer from the inroads of the 

 stone quarrymen and others. 



As a result of the destruction of forests and meadows, a number 

 of beetles seem to have disappeared, which were formerly quite 

 common, such as Boros unicoIo7\ Dorypliora juncfa., and Larleohlus 

 c/'/'e/isoni, while other species were introduced with the extension of 

 agriculture and horticulture. Among the introduced species, some 

 have multiplied so fast that they ma}" now fairly be considered pests, 

 such siii IVii/t(mo//im panctatus and Sltones hixjjidulus. A large por- 

 tion of the District, however, still remains unexplored, and only 

 recently the southeastern region, toward Marl}>oro, furnished l)otan- 

 ists several species not previouslj" enumerated in Lester F. Ward's 

 excellent List of the Flora of Washington and Vicinit3\ 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol, XXV— No. 1275. 

 Proc. N. M. vol. XXV— 0-2 — — 1 i 



