22 Journal New York Entomological Society. [^'°^- ^^V- 



ventro-lateraJ to the tergites there is much pink. The leg- and wing- 

 cases are blackish. The abdomen in its softer portions is dull yellow 

 and pink and has a brown sublateral stripe. 



The comparatively long duration of the prepupal stage may partly 

 account for the dark color of the pupa. 



Judging from the single specimen I have observed this Pyrac- 

 tonema must differ rather widely in its habits from P. Incifera (see 

 Wenzel, 1896) which lives in salt marsh meadows among snails. 



Photuris pennsylvanica DeGeer.i 



The adult beetle is elongate and rather flattened, the head is some- 

 what retracted under the prothorax, the antennae eleven jointed, 

 slender and tapering, and the eyes large. The thorax has the disc 

 convex, with broad thin margins, and is rounded anteriorly and along 

 the sides and subtruncate posteriorly. The legs are slender, the outer 

 tarsal claw is bifid; the elytra are rather acute at the tip and extend 

 well beyond the extremity of the abdomen. The general color of the 

 head is dull yellow, with a black area on the posterior part of the 

 vertex. The pronotum is dull yellow with the disc red and a median 

 black stripe, while the rest of the thorax is very dark brown. The 

 legs are paler at the base of the joints and at the apex of the femora, 

 while the elytra are brown or piceous, with the suture, side margins, 

 and a narrow tapering stripe on the disc, pale brownish. The ab- 

 domen is blackish brown with the posterior border of the fifth and all 

 of the remaining sternites, yellowish. The luminous organs are yel- 

 lowish and are situated on the sixth and seventh sternites. They 

 are larger in the male. The body is clothed with fairly abundant 

 yellowish pile, which is darker on the legs and most conspicuous 

 dorsally. The pronotum and the elytra are densely and rather 

 coarsely punctate. The length varies from 11 to 15 mm. 



This is the largest and commonest of the brilliant New England 

 fireflies, and from early June till the end of July, or the first week 

 of August, both sexes may be seen along the borders of woodlands, 

 flashing their yellowish-green light. The habitat of this species is 

 therefore unlike that of the abundant Photinus consangiiineus, which 

 frequents low moist meadows. While it is true that Photinus scin- 

 tillans flies with Photuris in this locality, owing largely perhaps to 



^Photuris pennsylvanica DeGeer, Mem. Hist, des Ins., IV, 1768, 52, 



