Field and Forest 



DEVOTED TO 



GENERAL NATURAL HLSTORY. 



Vol. I. — MAY 1876.— No. 12. 



Comparative Scarcity of Insects in the 

 Mountains of Colorado. 



In the summer of 1871 it was my good fortune to spend a number 

 of weeks in the far west, and a greater portion of the time in the Rocky 

 Mountains. Ample preparations had been made for general collecting, 

 and with a genial brother-of-the-net for companion in entomological 

 rambles — which often extended from dawn till dark — -we confidently 

 expected to do wonders, and bring home splendid collections in all 

 orders. 



The route followed carried us through Golden City and Idaho 

 Springs to South Park, thence to Pike's Peak and the Garden of the 

 Gods, where we emerged from the mountains and returned to Denver 

 over the more level plateau of the " Divide," and from the time we 

 passed the foot hills, near Golden City, and entered the first canyon 

 in the mountains, we were struck with the comparative paucity of the 

 insect fauna. On the table lands specimens of Eleodes and allied 

 genera of Tenebrionidce with other Coleoptera, were common enough. 

 Grasshoppers were abundant, while specimens in various other orders 

 buzzed or flitted around us in sufficient numbers to show decided 

 presence, but in the mountains the marked absence of insect life in 

 variety, except in favorable localities, was the rule and not the excep- 

 tion. Individual specimens, of course, occupied our attention as we 

 journeyed along the everlasting hills, and now and then a group of 

 butterflies, in some sunny nook, quickened our footsteps in their 



