the Fauna of l)iomeliacea?. 425 



comme milieu biologique," Monsieur C. Picado has likened 

 the Bronicliaceiie and their contents taken as a whole to 

 *'iin grand mareoage fraetionne, etendu dans toute I'Am^ri- 

 que iiitertropicale." Tiie bromeliad marshes, he writes, 

 are ver}' different from terrestrial marshes, owing to their 

 arboreal situation, restricted area, conditions of lighting, &c, ; 

 they are supplied not only with rain-water, but also with 

 water condensed daily from the atmosjjhere, and so they 

 may continue to contain water even at seasons when terres- 

 trial marshes are dried up; substances do not undergo a 

 real putrefaction in Bromeliacese *, but the water in them is 

 exceptionally pure. Dr. Ohaus also mentions (Stettin, cut. 

 Zcit. 1900, p. 211) that the water in bromeliads does not 

 disappear even in the dry season^ and even in places where 

 sometimes rain does not fall for months. From this it can 

 be seen that the fauna is likely to be largely amphibious or 

 aquatic in nature. 



Professor P. P. Calvert, who has given much time to the 

 study of the bromeliad fauna in Costa Rica, has published 

 several articles on the subject, dealing particularly with the 

 bromeliadicolous Odonate larvae. Previously to his researches 

 nothing Avas known of the early stages of the remarkable 

 dragonflies of the genus }Jecistogaster, the larvae of which 

 are among the most interesting of the bromeliad dwellers. 

 In one paper he states that various forms of animal life are 

 found in tlie Bromeliaceae in many localities, i. e. at very 

 different elevations and consequently under very different 

 climatic conditions: "cockroaches, earwigs, katydid-like 

 insects, larvse of beetles, of moths, of flies and of mosquitos, 



ants , snails, earthworms, scorpions, both true and 



false, centipedes, and even snakes of poisonous repute are 

 connnon drome/iadlco/i which we met in oiir examinations ^^f. 

 In another article is given a long list J of the creatures 

 found in a single clump of Bromeliacece near Juan Villas, 

 a list which includes Odonate larvse, a scurpion and a 

 pseudoscorpion, Phalangids, Coleoptera and Coleopterous 

 larvae of many kinds (including Ilydrophilidse, Elateridse, a 

 Lampyrid, an Endomychid, a weevil, &c.), Lepidopterous 

 and Dipterous larva?, two Heteropterous bugs, an earwig, an 



* See .1 second article bv Picado, C. R. Ac. Sci., tome cliv. no. 9, 1912, 

 p. n07. 



t From 'Old Penn,' Weekly Review of the University of Penn- 

 sj'lvania, ix. no. 6, pp. 105-170 (1910) : an extract is given by Champion 

 ill Ent. Mo. Mag. xxii. 1911, p. 17. 



X Ent. News Philad. xxii. 1911, pp. 402-11 : the list referred to above 

 is quoted t'n extenso in Ent. Rec. xxiv. 1912, p. 76. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 8. Vol x. 29 



