8 Annals Entomological Society of America [Vol. XII, 



and thence south along the flanks of the ranges which fringe 

 the Coast. In British Columbia it is more inland and on the 

 higher mountains and it continues as such along the Cascades of 

 Washington and Oregon and the Sierras of California, but 

 gradually ascends as it extends southwards. In the Cascades, 

 as on Mt. Rainier, it is found at about seven thousand feet, on 

 Mt. Shasta at eight thousand, in the Lake Tahoe region near 

 nine thousand, while in the southern Sierras it is well above 

 ten thousand feet. A few of its more widely distributed and 

 characteristic beetles are Nebria sahlbergi Fisch., Bembidium 

 incertum Mots., Amara erratica Sturm, and Cryptohypnus 

 bicolor Esch. Besides these, there are certain others which 

 are only to be found in the mountains of the West but which, 

 because of certain peculiarities of distribution throw so much 

 light upon the problem that they are worthy of being especially 

 mentioned. Such is Nebria trifaria Lee. a large and very 

 attractive black species. This is undoubtedly a glacial relict, 

 for it is now only to be found high up near the snow fields on 

 the Olympic Range, Mt. Rainier and Mt. Jefferson of the 

 Cascades, and the Rockies of Colorado. The rare N. ingens 

 Horn of the high southern Sierras, which differs from the 

 preceding chiefly in having very much rounded humeri and 

 atrophied wings, is, I am convinced, but a degenerate offshoot 

 of the preceding which was forced south and later entirely 

 separated from the parent stock. Nebria ovipennis Lee. and 

 its three associated species are also of importance from the same 

 viewpoint. They are all of moderate size, entirely apterous, 

 and with elliptical elytra, hence extrerriely specialized and 

 dependent upon their particular environment. The most 

 northern, N. kincaidi Schw., an entirely metallic species of a 

 purplish copper color, has been found close to the coast at 

 Farragut Bay, Alaska, and near the snow fields on Glacier 

 Peak and Mt. Rainier, Washington. A second, N. columbiana 

 Casey, which resembles the preceding, but has only the elytra 

 metallic, was described from British Columbia, but has also 

 been found on Glacier Peak and Mt. Rainier, Washington, and 

 Mt. Jefferson, Oregon. The third, N. ovipennis Lee, which is 

 but an offshoot of the preceding and differs only in color, being 

 entirely brownish or piceous, in other words more heavily 

 pigmented, is to be found on the higher peaks of the Lake 

 Tahoe region in California and above 10,500 feet in the southern 



