224 ^ YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



A beetle of quite unusual form, found in the Reventazon 

 valley on July 28 was Tauroma casta, of the Cassididae 

 (Chrysomelidae). It was half an inch (13 mm.) long, bright 

 metallic green in color and had very fine punctures, not 

 visible to the naked eye, on the prothorax and large coarse 

 black punctures on the elytra. Projecting from the anterior 

 outer angle of each elytron was a stout process, one-third 

 as long (4 mm.) as its entire body, curved upward. What 

 can be the function of these elytral processes — if they have 

 any.^ 



A familiar beetle was the gray blister beetle Epicauta 

 cinerea, which occurs over the United States east of the Mis- 

 sissippi, through Mexico and Central America to this valley, 

 where we obtained it on June 23. 



On February 17 a peon who met us on the Reventazon 

 bridge presented us with a large live Buprestid beetle 6.5 

 cm. long, of metallic green, rose, and purple colors {Euch- 

 roma goliath). We photographed it two days later, the 

 creature proving very sluggish. This species is found from 

 Mexico to Colombia. On April 28 numerous beetles, partic- 

 ularly longicorns and passalids, were flying about although 

 we saw no very large species. 



One day in July a large reddish spider suddenly ran across 

 the road, followed at a distance of six inches by a black wasp 

 with a yellow spot on its head. The spider doubled and 

 twisted, and hid behind stones; the wasp followed every 

 move, rising on her wings when the spider disappeared. 

 At length she touched the spider with her antennae, when 

 the spider.-wheeled and struck at the wasp with her front 

 legs, then hurried off in the interval of the wasp's rising. 

 The chase lasted several minutes, then the spider got under 

 a stone and the wasp, at fault, hovered over the place with 

 quivering antennae, frequently alighting to search the ground 

 but unsuccessfully. Here we interfered by lifting the stone 



