2G0 Annals Entomological Society of America [Vol. IX, 



Lachnosteraa. 



Several of these may-beetles were found, when the light 

 was flashed upon them, to be feeding on the leaves of the elder- 

 berry and grape on early June evenings between the hours of 

 9 and 10 o'clock, an hour when all honest insects are abed. We 

 know they are abroad even later than this by the thousands 

 which come to the lights. 



Nemognatha lutea [E. A. Schwarz]. 



These yellow sunflower beetles inhabit the blossoms of 

 sunflowers during the day, occasionally flying from one disk to 

 another. They do not drop to the ground, as do some insects 

 when disturbed, but they feign death for a short time by 

 stretching out and stiffening the legs. They spend the night in 

 the sunflowers in the same way, and if they really sleep one 

 cannot discern it ; the head and mouth-parts are usually covered 

 with pollen, and the head is often buried in the flower, as are 

 also the legs. When disturbed at night they feign death in 

 precisely the same manner as during the day; from this I con- 

 clude that they are not really asleep, but perhaps only resting 

 in the midst of their food supply. 



Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus [E. A. Schwarz]. 



These beetles which are so common where flowers abound 

 seem to sleep right in their day-time quarters, on the disks of 

 sunflowers or daisies, or on the clusters of elderberry or white 

 snakeroot flowers, etc. We have found them in great numbers, 

 both singly and in copulo, resting on these flowers at night, 

 from midsummer to autumn. 



Epicauta pennsylvanica DeG. [E. A. Schwarz]. 



At dusk on August 7 about fifty small black blister beetles 

 were clustered in the crannies' of the inflorescences of a group 

 of six goldenrods; none occupied positions on the plant below 

 the flower-heads. They were apparently ready to spend the 

 night, and many were readily taken. They did not drop to the 

 ground upon slight disturbance as usual during the day, and 

 one had to poke them persistently with a pencil to induce them 

 to fall, but they did not cling so tenaceously to the plant as did 



