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the spider Corirachne versicolor Keys, was taken by me March 23. 

 At times such places are relatively dry, and in them I have frequently 

 found, in large numbers, the tenebrionid beetle Nyctobates pennsyl- 

 vanica DeG. This species was taken at Bloomington March 9 and 

 June 15. A similar-appearing relative, with enlarged femora, Meri- 

 niis IcBvis Oliv., was taken June 15 and July 29. When Nyctobates 

 is placed in a corked vial it proceeds to chew the cork (which is about 

 of the firmness of the bark and wood in which it lives) and makes a 

 fine sawdust. Nyctobates was taken by me November 18 under loose 

 dry bark of the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) in the Cottonwood 

 forest (No. 549, C.C.A.). The March and November records of 

 this species clearly indicate that the beetle hibernates in the wood. 

 Scotobates calcaratus Fabr. and Xylopinus saperdioides Oliv. are 

 other tenebrionids which live under bark. I have taken Scotobates 

 at Bloomington June 29 and July 2, and Xylopinus June 29, July 2 

 and 26. The cucujid beetle Brontes dubius Fabr. was taken at Bloom- 

 ington March 9, April 5, July 25, 26, and September 21, and Cucujus 

 clavipes Fabr. (PI. XXVIII, fig. 8), whose larvae Smith reports to 

 be predatory, was taken March 6. Hopkins ('93b, p. 177) reports 

 both of these beetles from the bark of dead deciduous trees. Town- 

 send ('86, p. 66) reports both under the bark of decayed basswood, 

 and Packard ('90, p. 223) records clavipes from under oak bark. 

 Another common beetle, a spondylid, Parandra brunnea Fabr. (PI. 

 XXIX, figs. I, 2, and S), I have taken from decayed wood at Bloom- 

 ington. • The larvae, pupae, and beetles were found in rotten wood 

 July 23, and the beetles also on July 25, 26, and August 6. Hart 

 ('11, p. 68) calls this the heart- wood borer on account of its methods 

 of boring in this part of several kinds of deciduous trees. It burrows 

 largely in rotten, and, also, according to Mr. W. P. Flint, in sound, 

 walnut heart-wood. In recent years Snyder ('11, p. 4) reports much 

 injury by it to telephone poles. He says : "The insect attacks poles 

 that are perfectly sound, but will work where the wood is decayed; 

 it will not, however, work in wood that is 'sobby' (wet rot), or in 

 very 'doty' (punky) wood." As this injury is near the ground, the 

 invasion is probably begun in rotten wood by the young larva and ex- 

 tended later into the firm wood. This same author ('10, pp. 7-8) 

 lists several other insects associated in poles with Parandra. Clearly 

 this beetle is an inhabitant of wood in the early stages of decay. It 

 apparently does not kill trees, nor remain to the last in the log with 

 Passalus, but occupies an intermediate position. This is a repre- 

 sentative of a class of insects whose ecology has been rather slighted 

 in the past because of the economic conditions which permitted the 

 neglect of insects which were not supposed to be of much importance. 



