582 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [November, 



spring. I survej'- the phenomenon from my door-step. There 

 are robins carroUng in the trees, and there are butterflies in the 

 air : Va?iessa antiopa and V. nu/bertii dixe flitting about, together 

 with a few Grapta zephyrus and fewer Pieris rupee. These are 

 too common to be tempting, but at this time of the year they 

 are germs that awaken the collecting fever from its winter 

 lethargy. Collecting net is unfolded and examined, — there 

 are a few slight souvenirs of last year's thorns and twigs, not 

 large enough, however, to form an "open door policy." Cy- 

 anide bottle is uncorked, — the fumes are still potent enough 

 to disconcert most anything of a hexapodal nature. 



'Tis but a half hour's walk to the river Jordan. Cicindela 

 vulgaris is there, running everywhere over the moist sand. 

 About twenty of them are captured. They show considerable 

 variation in size, coloration and markings. But we get tired 

 of taking nothing but vulgaris, and move on. 



Across the river is plenty of open field of dry clayey soil, 

 covered here and there with last year's growth of crisped salt 

 grass, and dotted here and there with an occasional stagnant 

 pond. Here we find a few Calosoma zimmermanni and Eleodcs 

 hispilabris . As we near one of the ponds a sudden buzz and a 

 .streak of bright metallic green marks the transit of Cicindela 

 graminea. We note the termination of the green streak and 

 creep forward. It is ea.sy to discern a shining emerald against 

 a dull background of clay and yellowed gra.ss, and we soon 

 place seven of the.se emeralds to our credit. 



But the streak that vanishes before us is not always a green 

 one : occasionally it is dark indigo, and leads to the capture of 

 C. audubonii. At this point we remove all other .specimens 

 from our cyanide bottle, for audubonii is large and powerful, 

 — much larger here, I am told, than the same species farther 

 ea.st, — and if placed in the IxDttle along with other specimens 

 he u.sually divests some of them of their antenna; and legs, if 

 not worse, before yielding to the opiate. 



An interesting fact is here noted : we find in two instances 

 the i o( C. graminea mating with the 9 of C. audubonii, 

 and in lx)th ca.ses Iwth insects are netted while paired. I have 

 not l>efore known of intermarriages among separate species of 



