168 



BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



Note on a Beetle and Larva found in a cave at Manitou, Colorado. 

 I made a brief examination of a large bnt very dry cave, about 600 

 feet long, opened to travelers in 1874, in the Carboniferous limestone in 

 Williams Canon, at Manitou, Colo. The only life found in the cave was 

 a beetle, identified by Dr. Horn as DicUdia Icetula Le Conte, two flies, 

 and three Coleopterous larvae. The beetle occurred near the entrance, 

 and did not differ materially from other speci- 

 mens which I collected under stones in the 

 caiionnear the entrance to the cave. A species 

 of Mycetophilid fly also occurred near the door, 

 as well as a specimen of Blepharoptera defessa, 

 Osten Sacken,* not differing from specimens 

 which occur in various caves in Indiana (Wyan- 

 -DicUdiaicetuia^naiaTxa. clottc), Mammoth Cavc, and adjoining caverns. 



FiG.9.- 



^Blepharoptera defessa,n. sp., d" ? . — A sparse pubescence on the under side of the pleurae, 

 a single vibrissa on each side of the epistoma, a single strong bristle above the middle 

 tibi£e ; costa beset with moderately long bristles ; length 5-6'^^™. 



Antennte red, third joint brownish red ; arista rather long; front yellowish-red ; frontal 

 orbits grayish; a paler triangle on the vertex, bearing the brownish ocellar tubercle ; 

 anterior frontal bristle short, the one behind not quite twice as long. Thoracic dorsum 

 yellowish-gray ; the eight large dorsal bristles are inserted on brown spots, which are 



sometimes confluent ; the finer pubes- 

 cence on very minute dark spots, an often 

 faint brown stripe in the middle, and a 

 still less distinct one on each side ; hume- 

 ral callosities reddish, the flat scutellum 

 likewise. Pleurte pale brownish-gray, 

 darker below. Abdomen grayish-poll i- 

 nose, the ground color being blackish ; 

 male hypopygium yellow, with delicate 

 black pile ; tip of the female abdomen 

 also yellowish ; hind margins of segments 

 pale. Halteres whitish. Wings with a 

 brownish-yellow tinge ; bristles on the 

 costa of moderate length ; posterior cross- 

 vein rather near the tip of the fifth vein, 

 YiG. lO.-mepharoptera defessa, Ostein, SACKED, i^.sp. ^^^ j^g^. ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^i^ ^^^^^ 1^^^ 



than half of the cross-vein. Legs reddish-brown or brown ; knees and base of middle 

 iemora paler. 



Habitat. — Hundred Dome Cave, near Glasgow, Ky. (F. G. Sanborn, Geological Survey 

 of Kentucky, N. S. Shaler in charge) ; a male and two females. The specimens having 

 been kept in alcohol were very much injured. The species is related to B. cineraria 

 Lw. (syn. armipes Lw.), but is easily distinguished by the absence of the peculiar 

 armature on the hind femora of the male, the much darker legs, larger size, &c. The 

 anterior frontal bristles of jB. cineraria are much shorter, but the pair above them 

 much larger than in B. defessa. In one of my siDecimens, the male, the tibise are some- 

 what yellowish in the middle ; the frontal bristles were observed on the female, as 

 they had disappeared from the male specimen. 



Blepliaroptero} are often found in caves, where they are said to breed in the excrement 

 of bats. [This species also occurred in Mammoth Cave, Wyandotte Cave (Packard), and 

 numerous smaller caves (Sanborn), and will be further noticed in the Monograph of 

 Cave Life in the Memoirs of the Kentucky Geological Survey.— (A. S. P.)] 



