274 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



is capable of giving a most vicious bite, causing the 

 blood to flov freely; and it requires considerable effort to 

 induce the fellow to release his hold. This is the larva of 

 the Eyed Elater (Alaus oculatus), and it is endowed with 

 a most remarkable tenacity of life. When placed in 95 

 per cent alcohol for fully three minutes, it still continued 

 to squirm about, whereupon it was consigned to pure 

 formalin for ten more min- 

 utes, and this seemed to have 

 the effect of aggravating its 

 outrageously vicious temper. 

 After its formalin bath it 

 was thrown, with other 

 specimens, into a box, and 

 next morning it had appar- 

 ently recovered. It was then 

 posted to an expert for iden- 

 tification; went through the 

 mail in a sealed vial, and 

 was returned alive a week 

 later. It still lives and is as 

 fat and combative as ever. 



Shortly after capturing all 

 these specimens, the big 

 larva shown in the upper 

 left hand corner of Figure 

 3 was found and placed in 

 the collecting case; it is of 

 a pale creamy-white color. 

 Hundreds of the Horned 

 Passalus or Horn-bugs were 

 found under the bark of the 

 great rotten logs on the 

 ground everywhere through 

 this most interesting locality, 

 and possibly the big larva in 

 Figure 3 is of that species. 

 A fine picture of these Horn- 

 bugs is to be found in 

 American Forestry in an 

 earlier number (February, 

 1917, p. 87, fig. 5), and they 

 are more or less familiar to 

 all of those of our foresters 

 who keep their eyes open 

 when in the pine-timbered 

 districts of this country. 



Returning to the other 

 black beetle, referred to 

 above as being found under 

 logs and stones, it is easily 

 recognized by the beautiful 

 violet or deep purple hue it exhibits when held in certain 

 lights. It has a length of about an inch, and a form 

 somewhat resembling the species in Figure 3, while its 

 habits are entirely different. Some text books call it the 

 Murky Ground-beetle (Harpalus caliginosus), and it is 

 known to feed on the larvae of other insects, among them 

 the "cut-worms;" it is extremely active in all of its 

 movements. There is no trouble finding specimens of 



ONE OF THE DEAD OAKS 



Fig. 2. 



various beetles and 

 _iy others. This oak 

 tree possesses a diameter at the base of nearly two feet and a half, and 

 has a height of about forty feet; it is entirely dead. 



The bark was suddenly ripped off, exposing 

 larva;, and showing the borings and mines made b 



it, for the species is very abundant throughout the 

 northern sections of the United States and southern 

 Canada. 



We have a very different beetle in the dull black one 

 of which so many were found under the dead bark of 

 the oak trees in this little swamp. The black beetles 

 are Alobates (Nyctobates) pennsylvanica DeGeer, of the 



family Tenebrionida. There 

 is no common name for this 

 species, which is extremely 

 abundant throughout the 

 United States. It lives and 

 breeds under the loose bark 

 of decayed or decaying trees, 

 but never attacks any living 

 trees, nor does it cause the 

 death of trees. 



Various spiders are seen in 

 such a locality as is here de- 

 scribed, some of which are 

 abundant species while oth- 

 ers are more or less rare. 

 One of the former is appar- 

 ently a hunting spider that 

 never builds a web (Lycosa), 

 and it runs about on the 

 ground through the grass 

 and leaves with great rapidi- 

 ty. A specimen taken was 

 carrying a silken ball full of 

 small, yellow eggs. This it 

 clung to with the greatest 

 tenacity, and it did not lose 

 its hold upon it until both 

 spider and ball fell off a table 

 in the photographic room. 

 The spider was quickly cap- 

 tured and returned to the 

 table, and it chanced to be 

 released near an tgg of the 

 common Musk turtle. This 

 it evidently mistook for its 

 lost ball of eggs, and, strange 

 to relate, it made an effort 

 to deal with it accordingly, 

 turning it around and about 

 to secure the usual hold. But 

 soon it realized its mistake 

 and made another attempt to 

 escape, being promptly cap- 

 tured and subsequently re- 

 stored to liberty. 

 In this region there are not a few different species of 

 salamanders, but not many kinds of lizards. One of the 

 most abundant of the former is the Slimy Salamander 

 (Plethodon glutinosus), of which an unusually fine ex- 

 ample was taken upon rolling over a big, rotten log 

 (Fig. 7). This is a perfectly harmless creature of 

 some five inches in length half of which consists of 

 tail- This latter is subcylindrical in form and tapers to 



