106 Forty-ninth Report on the State Museum 



The collections, as in several preceding years, were made mainly 

 in the Adirondack Mountains. Although the season was not favor- 

 able for a varied insect life, the collections were quite satisfactory, 

 particularly as a portion of them was made in the month of June — 

 at an earher date than the region had hitherto been visited by 

 me. About i,8oo specimens were obtained, mounted and labeled 

 with locality and date, and 400 unmounted. Of the former were 

 212 aquatic insects in Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Pseudoneuroptera, 

 which were taken from a single small pond which was frequently 

 visited and its bottom explored. A number of these were quite 

 desirable as new to the Collection. 



The occurrence during the year of several species of insect pests 

 in unusual abundance gave the opportunity of securing them with 

 very little difficulty. The number gathered and placed in alcohol was, 

 from partial count and estimate, between nine and ten thousand. 



A marked feature for the year was the very small number of 

 Lepidoptera that were attracted to hght. No one species was com- 

 mon at Keene Valley except the beautiful bombycid, Arctia virgo 

 (Linn.). Not one of the orders was represented in its ordinary 

 abundance. Comparatively few of the Cicindelidce were to be found 

 in the localities where they were commonly met with, although the 

 openings to the burrows of their larvae — " doodle-bugs," as known 

 in Southern States, were not at all uncommon in foot-paths tra- 

 versed along roadways and in meadows. Coccifiellidce were almost 

 entirely wanting. The Diptera were remarkably few. It was seldom 

 that a BombyUd was seen hovering over moist spots in roads, and 

 the search for the Syrphidce on golden rods and other attractive 

 flowers was almost fruitless. It is strange that conditions preventing 

 the usual abundance of insects, particularly in the Diptera, have been 

 so general that even black-flies, the "midge" or "punky" (gray 

 gnat), and mosquitoes, were not, so far as came under my observa- 

 tion, even an approach to their ordinary annoyance. 



