Leng : Beetles of a Staten Island Garden 207 



coming after the roses are nearly gone, but usually I get fooled 

 by his being on time. A little asparagus grows in the garden, and 

 both asparagus beetles are there, so pretty in their spotted red 

 coats that we forgive the little mischief they do. Also, but unin- 

 tentionally, we grow bindweed, and thereby count the Coptocycla 

 gold beetles among our family. These species hibernate among 

 the leaves, hence one can always find them, and I was lately glad 

 they did so for it enabled me to supply a living specimen needed 

 at the American Museum in March, when they had no hopes of 

 its being attainable. The convolvulus flowers' also have hidden in 

 their depths the nitidulid beetle Conotchts obscurus. I do not find 

 this species in sifting the leaves, but other nitidulids, like Epu- 

 rea rufa and the very common Omosita colon, which loves to cling 

 to fatty bones, are probably in the garden at all seasons. 



The old trees are responsible for some click beetles, among 

 which Alaus ocidatus, black and white with big, black, velvety, 

 eyelike marks, is conspicuous. Other large beetles that we find 

 almost every year for the same reason are the big, black, clumsy 

 Prionus, seen crawling about the roots of the old cherry tree, and 

 the chestnut-brown stag beetle, Lucanus dama, with strong nip- 

 pers in front. He can really draw blood with these mandibles, as 

 I am sorry to say I once found out at the expense of an inquis- 

 itive child who insisted on putting his finger between them. 



The lawn with its long undisturbed grass roots has always a 

 crop of June bugs in progress, as I find when I have occasion to 

 dig up a piece of it ; and it also has hundreds of fireflies, prin- 

 cipally Photinits sciiitillaus, adding to the splendor of the June 

 nights. I have found the larvae of the firefly and have tried un- 

 successfully to raise them. Mr. H. S. Barber has had great suc- 

 cess in this direction, but at the expense of much time and labor, 

 as they live long and are fastidious about their meals. 



The soldier bug, Chauliognathus, in khaki-yellow, and the 

 blister bug, Epicauta, in sober gray, usually arrive in time to dam- 

 age the asters, and their company could well be spared. The big 

 yellow grapevine beetle, Pelidnota, is more of an addition when 

 toward dusk he leaves the shelter of the leaves he has clutched 

 together to buzz noisily about like " the shard-borne beetle with 



