NORTH AMERICAN GEOTRUPINAE — ^HOWDEN 193 



went to a depth of from 4 to 9 inches (in one case) very rapidly. He 

 further mentioned that he never saw two specimens of the same sex in 

 the same burrow. Males occasionally were collected at light by 

 Manee. 



I agree with Manee that the beetles are strong diggers, occasionally 

 come to light, and that they dig vertical burrows, but in other respects 

 my observations differ considerably. 



Originally, an attempt was made to locate the exact area in which 

 Manee had made his notes. This failing, considerable time was spent 

 trying to find an area having a large population of these beetles. 



During the first summer only occasional burrows were found in 

 August and September. These were usually located in the ruts of 

 seldom-used, sandy roads. The beetles made vertical burrows 2 to 3 

 feet deep, marked by ropey push-ups of sand 3 to 4 inches in diameter 

 (pi. 10, fig. 2). These burrows were traced by shoving long straws 

 into their openings and then digging down beside the straws. Usually 

 the depth necessitated maldng a rather large hole with a shovel or 

 trowel. On one occasion it was rather embarrassing trying to explain 

 to the curious owner the reason for the excavation in his road. The 

 occasional need to rapidly remove a beetle from its burrow, plus the 

 difficulty of digging out the beetles with a trowel or spade, led to the 

 use of a posthole digger and a sifter. Due to the beetles' habits of 

 digging a perfectly vertical burrow the digger could be centered over 

 the entrance and the sand sifted as it was brought out. In this 

 manner a beetle could be brought up from a depth of 3 or 4 feet in 

 about 10 minutes. If one wanted to study the burrow, the hole was 

 dug beside the burrow and a trowel was used to carefully expose the 

 shaft of the burrow. 



During the second summer, beside a small airport 2 miles north of 

 Southern Pines on U. S. Highway 1, a moderate colony of ferrugineus 

 was found. The land across the road from the airport had several 

 seldom-used roads and open patches of bare sand. The area, which 

 was near the top of a high sand ridge, was largely grassy with a few 

 scattered turkey oaks and longleaf pines. It was in this area that 

 both ferrugineus and Eucanthus (pi. 17, fig. 1) were found. 



The burrows of Jerrugineus were invariably in the open spots of 

 bare sand or in the sandy roads. Burrows were marked and a number 

 of adults were put in rearing cages in the same area. It was noticed 

 that sometimes the entrance of a burrow was plugged with sand at its 

 opening, sometimes it was not. Closer observation showed that 

 usually it was the burrow of a male which had a plug of sand at its 

 entrance. Often the burrow of the female was open 10 to 12 inches 

 before a sand plug was encountered. At no time during the three 

 years, in which time over 70 burrows were dug, were two specimens, 



