1847.] Winter Insects of Eastern jYeiv York. 283 



als that come forth earliest, bat I am uiuible to detect any marks 

 by which they may be characterized as specifically distinct from 

 those which appear at a later day. 



7. TiiicHOCEUA uuuMALis. Tkc Mid-Winter Trichoceru. 



Brownish-black; wings and legs pallid at their bases; poisers 

 blackish, their pedicels whitish. 



Length of the male 0.18, of the female 0.25, the wings expand- 

 ing twice these measurements. 



Thorax with an obscure grayish reflection. Abdomen in the 

 males cylindrical, slightly narrower towards the tip, in the fe- 

 males elongated-oval, and pointed at the tip; eaclj segment with 

 a strongly impressed transverse line in its middle, and the posterior 

 margin elevated into a slight ridge. Ovipositor fulvous, some- 

 times tinged with blackish. Wings hyiiWne, faintly tinged with 

 dusky; inner margins ciliated with quite short hairs; nervures 

 blackish. Legs very long, slender, and fragile, blackish; femm's 

 brown, gradually paler towards their bases. 



Common in forests in the winter season, coming out in warm 

 days, flying in the sunshine, and alighting upon the snow, its 

 wings reposing horizontally upon its back when at re^st. Even 

 when the temperature is below the freezing point, and the cold 

 so severe as to confine every other insect within its coverts, this may 

 be met with abroad upon the wing. It is a plain, unadorned 

 species, closely allied in its characters and habits to the European 

 T. hyemalis, but in a number of impaled specimens before me, I 

 can detect no stripes or bands upon the thorax; whilst the very 

 obvious character of the legs and wings being pallid at their ba- 

 ses, 1 do not find mentioned as pertaining to that species. 



8. PoDURA NivicoLA. " Tkc Snoic-flea.''^ 



Black or blue-black; legs and tail dull brown. 



Length 0.08. 



Bodi/ black, covered with a glaucous blue-black powder but 

 slightly adherent, and sparingly clothed with minute hairs; form 

 cylindrical, somewhat broader towards the tail. AntenncB short 

 and thick, longer than the head. Legs above blackish, beneath dull 

 brown and much paler than the body. Tail of the same color 

 with the venter, shortish, glabrous on its inner or anterior sur- 

 face, with minute hairs on the opposite side; its fork brownish. 



Though found in the same situations as the European P. niva- 

 lis, ours is a much darker colored species. Say's P. bicolor is a 

 larger insect than the one under consideration, and differs also in 

 size and in the color of the tail or spring. From the habits of the 

 present species, we should infer that it might be abundant in all 

 the snow clad regions of the northern parts of this continent; it 



