1916] Dow — Plaster Casting Insect Burrows 73 



four hind legs, loconioting with the forward pair. She abandoned 

 hole after hole without visible reason. I once filled sixty such bur- 

 rows without finding one unabandoned. In this case, as the soil 

 was "made" on the seashore by a sand pump, fresh diggings could 

 not be distinguished. 



But, for the present, the matter under consideration relates to 

 Cicindela. The illustrations are crudely drawn from actual casts 

 and the identification of species is made from a similar burrow. 

 This is accomplished by putting a wire net over a burrow during 

 pupal season and catching a freshly hatched adult. The task is 

 not easy in case of the supposedly two brooded species. Many, 

 perhaps most, of these live in the larval state into the second year. 

 Of C. lepida I can be certain, for I have watched them in a territory 

 of my own discovery on Brakeley land. INIr. Brakeley had pre- 

 viously taken a few specimens over his 335 acres, and I found the 

 colony, clustering around a spot where there were the remains of 

 an Indian campfire on the dunes, and where I found also beautiful 

 arrow and spear heads. C. lepida and the Delaware Indians 

 camped on the same spot. On July 18, 1915, I saw C. lepida 

 scampering by the thousands; their flight is very short, never over 

 six feet, and they run more quickly than dorsalis. As I had no 

 net (the mercury was 90° in the shade, and on this hot sand dune 

 130° or over) I took only a dozen with bare hand, stalking them 

 on knees and the other hand. Their larval burrows could be seen 

 by the thousands. The description given by Mr. Wenzel, 

 quoted from J. B. Smith's list of the Insects of New Jersey, is 

 correct so far as it goes. But the insect is scarce at Jamesburg and 

 only burrows under grass tufts were found. The species does not 

 choose such sites rather than another. The burrows were at least 

 one per yard of dune and the number under grass tufts about in 

 ratio with the area of grass tuft vs. clear open sand. The entrance 

 hole has a characteristic shape, which, once seen, can never be 

 mistaken. 



Fig. 2 shows the shape of the surface aspect of most Cicindela 

 burrows. Fig. 4 shows C. lepida. Fig. 5 is a cast of C. lepida 

 burrow. 



All Cicindela burrows that I have seen agree in general plan. 

 They consist of a pit from which a long, slender tube extends, at 

 first, not far from horizontal for a distance slightly shorter than the 



