124 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [MaV 



COLLECTING ON BISCAYNE BAY. 



By Annie Trumbull Slosson. 



( Continued from page 94.) 



But tlieie are other collecting grounds besides the deserted camp. 

 I spend many houi's along the shore of the bay. There are seveml 

 accessible stretches of sandy beach where at low tide I find some in- 

 teresting things. Under wet seaweed or beneath bits of coral rock or 

 piece-i of wood are many beetles, some very rare ones. But it is not 

 easy to discover or to capture them, for there are so many other liv- 

 ing creatures to distract the eye and mind. As one turns over a 

 heap of seaweed, hundreds of small shrimplike crustaceans. " sand 

 flees" as they ai"e called— jump and wrisrgle about in a bewildering 

 way. As they strike the sand there is a pattering sound as of i*ain 

 drops. Then large brown shining ear wigs glide rapidly out from 

 under the seaweed, looking much like big Staphylinidoi, or slender 

 Carabs. Pinkish earthworms crawl sluggishly along, tiny ants run 

 on the sand, and occasionally an immature cricket, soft and pallid, 

 hops up. All this movement and life is at first distracting, but 

 the trained eye soon learns how to distinguish re xdily what it seeks. 

 Platynus flortdensis,Si graceful Carab of greenish black runs swiftly 

 out, Bemb id mm constrictum darts from the heap of seaweed and 

 Ardistomis obUqua with its two bright red oblique spots steals out 

 more slowly. Here too I always find Tachys capax, a tiny beetle 

 of shining black, with pale legs and antennae, and Anthicus vicinas. 

 more slender and graceful. I have taken nere also Loxandrus Hor- 

 ideusis, L. celer, Oodes lecontei, Dyschirius hcem,orrhoidalis, Chtcb " 

 nius circumcinctus, Ardistomis schaumti, Al/cunius Icoynatus, A. 

 (/racilis, and several others. There are also many Staphylinids. the 

 most common one being the little Bltdius basalis which is always 

 running over the white sand. Philonthus alumnus is also plentiful, 

 while there are two or three species of Stenus and at least two of 

 Sunius. "When tired and stiff" with sitting on the damp sand I 

 change my position, take my net and going to the sandy stretch a 

 little farther from the water I chase tiger-beetles, flies, and aquatic 

 bugs. There are two or three species of Salda which fly over the 

 sand, one of them very pale in color, almost white and very diffi- 

 cult to detect on the white sand. Ii: diptera there are some very 

 pretty Dolichopodidae, most of them of whitish green, to harmonize 

 with the tints of the shore, an occasioijal robber fly and Borborus 

 veualicus by thousands. I find also on the damp sand a species of 

 the little three-toed cricket, Tridactylus, looking like a miniature 

 mole-ericket. It is very agile and hard to capture. Still farther 

 back from the water and on higher ground grow many flowers, and 

 there I hunt bees, wasps, butterflies and bugs till time to wend my 

 way homeward over the glaring white, hot c()ral road. 



