140 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, 



upper end being directly opposite the mouth of the Stikine River. 

 On the seaward side, only a very few miles from the river mouth, 

 the town of Fort Wrangel lies on a narrow strip of beach, backed 

 by high hills covered with the usual conifers and blueberry un- 

 dergrowth; close to the beach this growth is replaced by thickets 

 of salmon-berry and thimble-berry, the fruit of both being used 

 as food by the native and white residents, but supporting little in 

 the way of insect life. The great nettles, taller than a man, which 

 are plentiful in these thickets, make the task of forcing a way 

 through them or searching the ground anything but pleasant. 

 However, I expected to make this place my base of operations 

 for some weeks, and so made preparations accordingly. 



Investigation showed the insect fauna of the island to be by no 

 means varied, and to present nothing remarkable as compared 

 with other points in the North Pacific. A number of Carabidae 

 may be taken, mostly along the edge of the beach, just above 

 high-tide mark; among them may be mentioned Cychrus angus- 

 ticollis, C. marginatus, Loricera \o-punctata, Nebria sp., Pteros- 

 tichus crenicollis^ P. vitreus, P. riparius, Bembidiuni funereuvi, 

 B. flavopictum, B. cautum, Patrobus septentrionis, P. aterrimus, 

 Platynus erasus and Atnara littoralis. Of the Dytiscidae only an 

 Agabus and a few specimens of Hydroporus oblitus were found, 

 and these not in water, but under stones or pieces of wood in 

 very wet places — the use of a net in pools and streams yielding 

 nothing. Search under seaweed and other debris cast up by the 

 sea proved much less productive than I had anticipated, very 

 little except a few Staphylinidae being taken here. Trichopteryx 

 parallela and a species of Ptenidiuin were found sparingly under 

 logs and chips, while Cryptohypnus inusculus occurred in some 

 numbers under the shingle. 



Just within and along the outskirts of the brush, Athous ferrii- 

 ginosus is seen quite commonly, flying where footsteps disturb 

 the quiet of the spot. On rolling over sticks or small logs here, 

 which were deeply imbedded in moss and much overgrown with 

 grass, these insects would fly around in numbers, alighting on my 

 clothes and very easily captured — they often .came from resting 

 places near or upon the ground, running up the stems of plants 

 until a good place was reached from which to take wing, when 

 they would let go and fly slowly around the spot, something after 

 the manner in which Myodites may be seen about golden-rods in 



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