WEST AND NORTH OF CART AGO I13 



On one of his later visits (in July, 1913) to Sabanilla and 

 the Laguna del Reventado, Prof. Tristan found on a rotten 

 tree a dead specimen of the brilliant silvery-gold beetle, 

 Plusiotis batesi, which he sent to us. This resplendent insect, 

 one and three-sixteenths inches long, is a member of a genus 

 of Lamellicorn beetles "highly characteristic of the Central 

 American region" and always attracting attention on ac- 

 count of their brilliant metallic colors. We did not meet it 

 in our own experiences in Costa Rica. 



Formerly the Laguna del Dirumbo was much larger, but 

 in October, 1891, the barrier which held back the water gave 

 way and a great flood poured down the Reventado aff'ecting 

 •even Cartago; no lives were lost as the sound of the ap- 

 proaching water was heard in time to give warning to people 

 living near the river. A larger, prehistoric flood Is supposed 

 to have broken down the south wall of the crater to its 

 present level, and to have carried and scattered on Its course 

 the numerous boulders and rocks now so striking a feature 

 •of the landscape around Cartago. Romanes, however, who 

 studied the Cartago region in 1910, thinks that the boulders 

 of lava, especially to the east of the town, represent a single 

 lava flow which has weathered out In place and that this 

 lava flow once formed a dam which held back a large but 

 shallow Cartago Lake. 



The sun was shining while I was in the valley of the laguna 

 {11 A. M.) but every quarter hour or so a light cloud swept 

 ■down from over the summit of the mountain. These clouds 

 increased in density and as I went back to Sabanilla it rained 

 at Intervals. After looking in a nearby potato field to see 

 if the plants were attacked by potato "bugs" (Leptinotarsa) 

 and finding none, I walked back to TIerra Blanca, much of 

 the way through rain which continued through the afternoon. 



In April, 1910, M. Jaime Lacroix, a Frenchman who had 

 lived In Costa Rica for some years and made a business of 



