60 THE REPORT OF THE No. 19 



tunatelj' the beetles were running in an upward spiral and when I stumbled 

 to the tree over a rotten log they were almost out of reach. I jumped and 

 managed to brush one to the ground, but could not see it by the most careful 

 search. However, I waited patiently for a minute or so, and then to my 

 great delight saw the creature emerge from the ground and re-ascend the 

 trunk. As I captured it I recognized in it the Physocnemum brevilmeum, 

 a long-coveted species. Scanning the tree carefully I presently descried 2 

 more of the beetles running about on the bark, some 20 feet up. I stayed 

 for nearly an hour at the foot of the tree, with hope in my heart and a 

 crick in the neck, as intent as a dog listening to the clatter of a squirrel, — 

 and my reward was three or four specimens of the beetle. As a rule, they 

 appeared at a height beyond range, on the trunk of the tree, walking rapidly 

 downwards, following the corrugations and grooves of the bark. Occasion- 

 ally, however, they lit on the tree after flight through the air, but the.y 

 rarely, when disturbed, took to the wing for escape, preferring to run or to 

 release their hold and drop. A six mile walk is nothing when a new longi- 

 corn is waiting just around the last corner and I made the tree the turning 

 post of my daily course for nearly a week, by which time I had taken 15 

 or 16 specimens. The tree was apparentlv sound, with a magnificent 

 crown of foliage surmounting the massive pillar of its trunk, but the beetle 

 was breeding there. I am pretty sure, and in July of this year, while I was 

 m England, my fellow-collector got several more specimens on the same tree. 

 Early in July I made an expedition to Garden Hill, some ten miles 

 north of Port Hope. Here they were cutting out the pine from a 20-acre 

 lot and a saw mill was at work. I went out in hopes of getting some specimens 

 of Monoliavimus, a beetle that with a single exception I knew only from 

 cabinet collections. The lumbermen said they had seen numbers of these 

 insects on the logs and in the brushwood, but from inexperience, or ill-luck, 

 I failed to secure many; my bag included one pair of the large grey 

 M onohammus , 3 isolated specimens of Monohammus scuteUatus (Fig. l-S"), 

 and one specimen of a third species of Monohammus, the elj^tra being in 

 colour a mottle of three or four shades of rust yellow, and the insects in size 

 almost identical with scuteUatus. By preparing several stumpvS and logs 

 with chips and stripping the bark from dead trees I got several other longi- 

 corn beetles, such as Criocephahis acfrestis, Orthosoma hrunneum (Eig. 15), 

 Tragosoma Harrisii, and a carcase of Prionus laticollis (Fig. 16). Had this 

 been all I would have felt some disappointment, but it wasn't. The place 

 was a veritable paradise of Buprestids, and not only did I get 12 or 14 species 

 in all, but among them several quite new to me, beginner as I was. There 

 were at least two (probably three) species of Chrysobothris, two of Chalco- 

 phora, three or four of Dicerca, two or three of Buprestis, and a black Melan- 

 ophiln with a nasty bad habit of settling on the back of one's neck and 

 giving it a sharp nip. 



There could be nothing more enjoyable than roaming about in that clear- 

 ing, and though it is nearly a year and a half ago, it seems like yesterday. 

 It was glorious July weather. In the distance vou could hear the Mourning 

 Dove, and round about in the brushwood and trees were several pairs of 

 Towhees and not a few slate-coloured Juncoes. While ranging up and down, 

 I noticed on a bare, dead trunk of pine a bright looking beetle with appar- 

 ently a damaged wing, for it stood out from the creature's body at an angle. 

 At nearer view this resolved itself into a brand new Clerid, the largest I had 

 ever seen, and in its jaws was the elytron of an FJater off which the monster 

 had just been dining: no midniarht assassin, but a cannibal in broad daylight, 

 and the rascal was flaunting his trade in one of the gayest liveries you ever 



