204 SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Although this is said to be a common and abundant insect, yet it would 

 appear to be rather a local one, for, when occurring in large numbers upon 

 the snow, it could scarcely fail of arresting attention. It certainly is 

 not often observed, even by entomologists. I can only recall one instance 

 in which it has fallen under my observation. 



Habits. 



Dr. Fitch has remarked as follows of it: " This is an abundant species 

 in our forests in the winter and forepart of spring. At any time in the 

 winter, whenever a few days of mild weather occur, the surface of the 

 snow, often, over whole acres of woodland, may be found sprinkled more 

 or less thickly with these minute fleas, looking, at first sight, as if gun- 

 powder had there been scattered. Hollows and holes in the snow, out 

 of which the insects are unable to throw themselves readily, are often 

 black with the multitudes which here become imprisoned. The fine 

 meal-like powder with which their bodies are coated enables them to 

 float buoyantly upon the surface of the water, without becoming wet. 

 When the snow is melting so as to produce small rivulets coursing along 

 the tracks of the lumberman's sleigh, these snow-fleas are often observed, 

 floating passively in its current, in such numbers as to form continuous 

 strings; whilst the eddies and still pools gather them in such myriads as 

 to wholly hide the element beneath them." 



Notices of its Observation. 



Mr. T. B. Ashton, of Washington county, N. Y., has given the fol- 

 lowing account of his observation of this insect, in a paper read before 

 the Entomological Society of Philadelphia : 



Poditra nivicola Fitch. — Found on the i8th of April, weather cloudy 

 and cold, with temperature above 50° Fahr. This insect was met with 

 in countless numbers on and near a swampy piece of ground, through 

 which ran a small creek. My attention was first directed to what I sup- 

 posed to be soot floating down the creek, and paid no farther notice to 

 it until I discovered the insect in large numbers in the highway, a few 

 rods distant from the creek, and then suspecting the cause of the soot- 

 like appearance floating on the water, I returned, and to my surprise, 

 found countless millions of them alive and active, piled upon each other 

 to the height of half an inch, and in spots varying from an inch or less 

 to twelve inches in diameter, floating on the water in every eddy, for a 

 distance of about thirty rods. 



I also observed them in vast numbers, in every direction for rods 

 around the creek. This was the only place that I met with them on 

 that day, though I passed over, on foot, a tract of country fifteen miles 

 in extent. 



The following notices, in all probability referring to this species, are 

 ixova. Field and Forest, vol. ii, 1877, pp. 146-7. 



