26 



Important Species, General List for the Whole State 



Hirticula, 

 Implicita, 



43,439, 



16,980, 



central and southern 



y j } } > ) 



Fusca, 



11,800, 



northern and central 



Inversa, 



11,021, 



) t 1 9 ) 1 



Futilis, 



8,300, 



> > ) f 1 ) 



Forbesi, 



3,380, 



southern 



Kugosa, 



2,769, 



northern 



Micans, 



2,700, 



southern 



Anxia, 



2,116, 



northern 



Bipartita, 



1,725, 



southern 



Fraterna, 



1,512, 



y y 



Vehemens, 



, 1,426, 



> y 



Profunda, 



1,336, 



y y 





108,504 



= 94.9 percent of 114,493 



Methods of Collection 



With the exception of those picked up from the ground in fol- 

 lowing the plow, our May-beetles were, of course, all collected at night, 

 those at light-traps and electric lights early in the evening, as a rule, 

 when the beetles were flying freely, and those from trees and shrubs 

 generally after the night coolness had made the insects sluggish and 

 ready to fall to the ground when jarred or shaken off. Generally 

 speaking, no attempt was made to select the trees and shrubs from 

 which collections were made, but possible food-plants of the beetles 

 were taken indiscriminately, as my collectors chanced to come to them. 

 The 1906 collections and a part of those of 1911 are exceptions to 

 this statement. Records were made in every case of the date, place, 

 and method of collections, and, if obtained from plants, of the kind 

 of plant from which each lot of specimens was gathered. 



It was not possible to assign any single assistant or group of 

 assistants to this work, but those favorably situated were instructed 

 to use for this purpose all the time left them from their other em- 

 ployments. The product of the work was, consequently, very unequal 

 in character as to numbers of specimens obtained in different years, 

 at different places, and in different parts of the season. The data 

 are especially difficult to organize in any thoroly satisfactory manner 

 because the only available unit, the single collection (by which is 

 meant the lot of specimens obtained by one person in one night from 

 a single kind of tree or shrub), was not by any means of uniform or 

 equal value at all times and places, and in the nature of the case could 

 hardly be made so even tho great pains were taken to that end. It 

 has seemed to me, however, that, with a sufficient number of collec- 

 tions from food-plants, this unitary value might approximate closely 

 enough to an equal average to make it available for cautious statis- 

 tical use, provided conclusions are drawn only where contrasts are 

 obvious and pronounced. Such use as has been made of the numbers 

 of beetles obtained from lights has had reference only to time and 

 place, and not to the number of "collections" recorded. 



