Vol. xxiii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS I7I 



Collecting at the Water Gap. 



By Annie Trumbull Slosson, New York City. 



When, a few years ago, I deserted the happy hunting- 

 grounds of the White Mountains and selected the Delaware 

 Water Gap for a summer resort, I had faint hope of entomo- 

 logical success. The place was so near New York and Phila- 

 delphia, had been so hunted over for years, how could I ex- 

 pect to make any discoveries, capture new or even rare species ? 

 But as I look back over my records I am not at all ill pleased 

 with the net results. The locality is almost ideal from the 

 viewpoint of a naturalist. Well wooded, well watered, a roll- 

 ing country with surrounding hills and real mountains to look 

 up to or climb, it is a tempting spot for botanist, entomologist 

 or general zoologist. Its insect fauna is rather peculiar, in- 

 cluding both northern and southern species beside those com- 

 monly found in the Middle States, so-called. I have found 

 there several insects wdiich I had before taken only on Mt. 

 Washington, and again some species which I have heretofore 

 called southern and taken only in Florida have turned up at 

 the Gap. 



As some of you know, I noi longer like "roughing it" when 

 on a collecting trip. I stay at a comfortable hotel where, be- 

 tween my tramps, I can rest and eat under most favorable con- 

 ditions. At the Gap my night collecting would be styled by 

 strenuous entomologists almost criminally luxurious. A large 

 private bathroom opened from my bedroom ; its floor was tiled, 

 its woodwork and walls pure white. It had one window and 

 bright electric light. Before I went down to dinner in the 

 evening the window was always opened to its fullest extent, 

 the lights turned on and the door closed. Then, when I re- 

 turned later at night, I found my "catch." Walls, ceiling and 

 white bathtub were covered with specimens ; certain families 

 of Neuropteroid insects, Perlidae, Rhyacophilidae, Hydropsy- 

 chidae and others were abundant. Among these Mr. Banks 

 found several new to science and has since described such. 

 In my latest number of Transactions of the Am. Ent. Soc. 

 two of these are described by Mr. Banks, Rhyacophila formosa 



