204 



■entomological news. 



[October, 



-covered with dust. The heat was very great, so that one looked 

 with some longing at the perpetual snow on the distant mountains. 

 Two days after, traveling up Cedar Creek from Montrose, rain 

 •came on, and the abundant sticky mud of the roads made it nearly 

 impossible to proceed. Although the temperature was not down 

 to freezing point, I do not think I ever suffered so much from the 

 •cold as on this journey. Early next morning numbers of robins 

 {Merula tnigratorid) passed on their migration to warmer regions. 

 Below Montrose, Malvaslrum coccineiim was noted. This malva- 

 ceous plant is easily recognized, and is useful for indicating the 

 kind of locality. It occurs on dry, open ground, up to about 

 8000 feet, or sometimes rather higher, belonging to the sub-alpine 

 and lower, mid-alpine regions* On Cedar Creek, October 9th, 

 species of Colias, Coccinella, Vespa and Lucilia were noted. 



At Cimarron (6906 feet) I found a Geophilus, and also a new 

 ichneumonid, since described by Mr. Ashmead as Thersilochiis 

 montanus. In the same neighborhood three beetles were obtained, 

 afterwards identified as Harpalus amputattis Say, Pterostichus 

 longuhis Lee. and Amara remotestriata Dej. These three are all 

 found also in the mid-alpine zone of Custer County. 



GUNNISON, S. 

 Mid- Alpine, with some pretty -and little-settled country. There 

 is a pine wood between Allen and Powderhorn, which is rather 

 unusual, firs being the dominant conifers in Colorado. Judging 

 from the distribution of the two genera Abies and Pinus, it seems 

 as if the former were ousting the latter; so we get, as in Custer 

 County, Pinus ponderosa chiefly fringing the Spruce forests at 

 their lower limit; and at and near timber-line a high-alpine Pinus 

 of a different species, maintaining a somewhat precarious exist- 

 ence. When the pines were dominant, they seem to have gone 

 a little higher than the firs, and hence the finding of logs and roots 

 a little above the present timber-line. If this view is correct, it 

 cannot be doubted that these changes have affected the insect 

 fauna. The insects taken or noticed were Bembidium indistinctum 

 Dej. and Lucilia sp. by Little Blue Creek; Vespa sp. on the East 

 Twin Mesa; and Pterostichus luczotti Dej., the locality not exactly 

 noted. A Geophilus was also found. 



It will very likely be objected that the above notes are hardly 

 entomological at all, and I send the paper with some fear lest it 



