1898.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. I97 



furnace, come from the desert which rises in ridges to the west, 

 and the rough pinnacles of The Needles Mountains lift — a black 

 image of absolute desolation — to the southward. Not a prom- 

 ising ground surely, nor one in which a collector might look for 

 much physical enjoyment to offset any failings in luck. 



The season, also, was far advanced, but still the results of my 

 stay were not to be despised. By rising before the sun I found 

 it easy to get numbers of a fine green Buprestid, Gyascutus plani- 

 costa. It was abundant on a common schrub with small, thick, 

 glossy leaves, and a sticky surface. This bush grew in large 

 patches on gravelly flats, out of reach of any freshet from the 

 river. Before the sun warmed the beetles into activity their cap- 

 ture was easy, but in the heat of the day it was almost impossible 

 to approach them, since they took flight at such slight alarm. 

 Beating bushes of other sorts brought me a great lot of Hemip- 

 tychns belonging to an undescribed species. They are of a 

 bleached appearance in common with some other beetles of this 

 ill-favored spot. Ctenobium plumbeum occurred with it, and in 

 the same company I noticed Cybocephalus calif ornicus , Exocho- 

 mus marginipennis, Hyperaspis lateralis and Coccinella abdomi- 

 nalis. Leguminosa — the screw-bean and its kind — yielded some 

 Tychius setosus and an Apion, which, I suppose, is ventricosum. 



Search along the river banks and on the margins of standing 

 pools in the bottom-lands was productive of some interesting 

 forms. Cicindela tenuisignata was tolerably abundant on alka- 

 line mud, not a very convenient place for working with a net 

 since it soon becomes clogged up. Over the shores run dozens 

 of the little ant-like Carabid, Ega Icztula, while in burrows, safely 

 concealed, lie Clivina dentipes and Dyschirius analis, and these 

 must be drowned out by flooding their dwelling. Under logs in 

 damp spots I took Chlcenius ruficauda, easily recognized by the 

 reddish elytral tips. In like situations occur Tecnophilus crocei- 

 collfs, Tetragonoderus pallidus, a number of Brachinus, several 

 Scarites subterraneus , of the small form called calif ornicus , and 

 one or two Thalpius. hornii. Other species, mostly small and 

 inconspicuous, are not wanting. On the edges of the water in 

 a shallow well, such as the Indians make, I took a few Tetracha 

 Carolina. In ponds water beetles were plentiful — Berosus sub- 

 signatus, B. infuscatus, Tropisternus limbalis, Hydrophilus trian- 

 gularis, Ochthebius lineatus, Coelambus medialis, Laccophilus 



