March, '05] entomological news. 69 



which I had supposed to be a color variety of D. 4-guttata. 

 Now I seemed to detect decided differences and have been 

 since assured by good authorites that this is a distinct species, 

 perhaps West Indian if not quite new. One day I found that 

 by digging away the white soil in which my log was embed- 

 ded I could reach a portion of the underside of the wood 

 where the bark was softer from partial decay. Here I dis- 

 covered abundant insect life. There were scores of odd mag- 

 got-like things which I knew must be Dipterous larvae. I 

 carried some home to myjroom with plenty of the soft, moist, 

 decomposed wood in which I found them, hoping to breed the 

 imago and learn its identity. But they all dried up and died. 

 However one morning in March the puzzle was apparently 

 solved when I found several specimens of the tropical Strati- 

 omyid, Cyphonija margmata, crawling on the log, their wings 

 searceiy dry. I do not know whether anything has been 

 recorded concerning the habits or life history of this species, 

 nor can I prove indisputably that the ' ' maggots ' ' of which 

 I have spoken were the larvae of C. marginata, but I feel sure 

 of it myself. In this same decayed wood were many small 

 Staphylinids, hundreds of the slender little Lisphius tenellus, 

 and among them another seemingly allied species new to me. 

 This proved to be, according to Mr. Frederick Blanchard, a 

 Hypotelus, a genus not hitherto recognized, I think, in North 

 America. Erichson described H. pusillus from Brazil, Which 

 Mr. Blanchard considers very near the Florida species. Dr. 

 Sharp says that the genus is found " under sappy bark." 



I sent some specimens of the Etirops to Mr. Blanchard who 

 discovered among them one specimen of a Badridium sp., 

 which I had overlooked, confusing it with the Europs. I 

 found also among the specimens of Cossonus impressifrons a 

 small black species of the same genus, Cossonus, which appears 

 to be undescribed, though it may possibly be West Indian. 



When cramped and aching from my uncomfortable position 

 on the ground I often changed my posture and seating myself 

 on the log rested in the sunshine. Then I saw man 5' things 

 I should have missed had I kept to my cortical collecting. A 

 pretty little Phy sails or ground-cherry, of the nightshade 



