May .SqQ.l 



SUPFLEMENT TO PSYCHE. 



is aggiavatetl bv the attacks of insects. 

 I have reexamined some of tiie fallen 

 trunks which I visited last Janiiar)- and 

 found several that were atVected bv rot 

 and which had been cut down since I 

 visited them at that time. The usual 

 fauna was there hut in less varietv than 

 I expected to tind, and of the rarer 

 species I did not observe a single 

 specimen. I liave reason to believe 

 that when this black rot is- once started 

 it progresses quite rapidly and in the 

 case of a fallen trunk it soon completelv 

 takes possession. On the other hand 

 many fallen trunks not allected bv the 

 rot remain alive and sound for veiv 

 manv months and perhaps for one or 

 two years, even if they are cut or split 

 badly in falling, as is geiierallv the case 

 on stony hillsides. I visited one trunk 

 which I myself had cut down in January 

 last and which I had chopped and 

 hacked into the verv heart with a 

 hatchet and in numerous places. The 

 wounds whicli I had made and the deep 

 splits made bv the rocks among which 

 the giant truidc had fallen, were all 

 scarred over and cicatrized without a 

 sign of decay, and not a single insect 

 had etlbcted an entrance. The flesh 

 remained sound and full\- alive. 



Tucson, ^Vpril 39, 1S97. 



I examined the other day a big cactus 

 trunk which I cut down and thoroughly 

 inoculated with cactus rot when I'was 

 here before. This was the famous 

 trunk with a rotten cavity from which 

 I got my first introduction to this fauna 

 on Christmas day. I found the trunk 



almost entirely consumed bv the rot 

 with which I had infected it. Other 

 trunks which I had cut down about the 

 same time without inoculation have not 

 rotted and are still sound and green. 

 This lai'ge rotten trunk is now in excel- 

 lent conditiiin and full of insects but 

 they are for the most part of the com- 

 moner species onlv. Bcloniiclius 

 cpliippiatiis was very abundant and 

 also the smaller Maseocharas, Plolo- 

 Icpta yiicateca and the Hydrophilids. 

 The large Maseochara sctnivcliitina 

 was not common as imago but its larva 

 was there in considerable numbers. 

 It is probable that many other species 

 are now in larva also and the imagos 

 are not common at this season. I 

 found in this trunk, in the half dry 

 flesh of the still standing stump, an 

 abundance of Apotrcpits dcnsicollis, 

 and among them I secured two more 

 specimens of the new Cossomis ; also 

 Aliiidria teres and L'losonia margiii- 

 a/a, and finally a new member of this 

 fauna, a small species of Platydema ( /*. 

 InquiliiiHiii Lincll) apparently unde- 

 scrlbed and probably identical w ith the 

 species I found in the nests of the 

 Dasylirion rat {Ncotoma alhi'gula). 



Tucson Ar. May 13, 1S97. 



Some of the Lampyrid larvae which 

 I took in January from old and dry 

 trunks of Ccrais gi!;'aiite?is and which 

 I kept alive ever since are now begin- 

 ning to transform to greenish pupae, 

 and one of those has disclosed the imago 

 which proves to be Lycaina discoi- 

 dalis. The other day I found a fresh 



