2o6 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



abdomens cocked up behind, that are thus introduced, there may 

 always be something desira'ble from a collector's standpoint. 

 Oxyomus sylvestris is also common in manure, and hibernates in 

 old leaves. 



The ladybugs, known to all gardeners either as adults or larvae, 

 are always present and are represented by many species. One 

 specimen of Coccinella trifasciata, found by sifting leaves on April 

 4, reminded me that when the first list of Staten Island ladybugs 

 was printed, some thirty years ago (Proc. Nat. Sci. Assoc. 

 Staten Is. i: 6. Mr 1884), only one specimen of the species 

 was known to us. This ladybug, like C. transversoguttata, seems 

 surely to have spread southward during the interval. 



Of the fungus beetles the commonest in the garden has been a 

 blue and yellow Tritoma, which sometimes occurs in numbers on 

 a soft fleshy fungus that grows on the old trees. I regret now that 

 I have not paid more particular attention to this feature of the 

 garden fauna, as there have been at times some rare insects thus 

 attracted. My friend Charles Dury, who gave me some of my 

 first lessons in collecting beetles, reserved a piece of his garden 

 for old bones, potato peelings and such like domestic refuse, with 

 this feature in view. He simply threw them under a spreading 

 tree and sifted out the catch at his leisure. Lately he has discov- 

 ered the efficacy of a pile of cut grass, occasionally sprinkled and 

 sometimes enriched with melon rinds. Such methods would 

 doubtless add to a Staten Island garden list, and a little fungus 

 would not hurt as a seasoning to the mess, for it must be admitted 

 that many beetles love whatever smelleth evil, being scavengers 

 primarily. 



The flowers of course in their several seasons attract many 

 beetles. Early in the year Anthrenus appears on the spiraea and 

 makes me think of others of the same genus indoors eating my 

 collection. Gardeners think all sorts of things, having lots of 

 solitude. My next door neighbor, for instance, insists that beetles 

 escaping from my den are responsible for the warty growths on 

 his lindens. He is in error, of course, and I may be wrong in 

 connecting the spiraea Anthrenus with the museUm pest ; but 

 nevertheless I dislike it as I do the long-legged Macrodactylus 

 that destroys the rosebuds. This fellow gets fooled some seasons, 



