266 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



of the west, as well as in the vicinity of salt springs and lakes, this species abounds, 

 presents numerous patterns of marking, and various depths and degrees of coloration, 



in agreement with tlie kind of soil upon which it lives. 

 It is of a somewhat longer form than most of the other 

 native species, with the face, antennae, legs, breast, sides 

 of the pronotum, two spots next the tip of scutellum, and 

 the exterior length of the corium ivory white. In one 

 variety this white color invades the upper surface more 

 or less extensively, and sometimes covers the greater part 

 of the head, prothorax, and wing-covers. In another, this 

 color is restricted to the margins and a few small spots on 

 the corium ; so that the insect appears mostly black. 



One of the ordinary varieties has the crown of the 

 head, excepting two pale dots behind, the disk of the pro- 

 PiG. 321. -sawa ugn<»-Mi. ^}^q^.^^ ^nd a round spot on each humeral angle, the scutel- 

 lum, excepting two spots at tip, the corium and three spots on the costal areole, 

 most of the venter and sternum, and a band across the base of the anterior coxje, 

 black. The antennae are more or less obscured on the upper side, while the knees, 

 tips, and spines of the two posterior pairs of shanks, with the tips and incisures of the 

 tarsi and the nails, are black. All but the base of the rostrum is dark piceous. It is 

 rather more than one-fourth of an inch in length, by one-eighth of an inch in width. 

 It is a very active little insect, which may be observed on the sandy beaches of Marj-- 

 land, running swiftly over the damp surface left by the tide, searching for food, 

 and thrusting its rostrum into drowned flies and other insects, in company with 

 Cicindela dorsalis, whose wary motions and sudden flight for short distances it imi- 

 tates. It is, however, not confined to these outer beaches, but may also be found 

 upon the darker sands and peaty marshes farther inland, where its colors become 

 darker, in agreement with the soil. 



Like some Cicindelce and other insects which tenant these black, boggy surfaces, 

 it sometimes becomes suffused with black, obscuring the markings and hiding its true 

 colors ; but much of this black pigment is temporary, and may be washed out by 

 baths of dilute alcohol. 



Multitudes of other species inhabit different parts of the United States, and one 

 large, black species is found as far north as Great Bear Lake, and near the Yukon River 

 in Alaska. Some of the smaller species, with black ground-color, marked with white, 

 are distributed over the greater part of North America, being found near streams of 

 water, or about the drier parts of fresh-water marshes. A group of pale horn-colored 

 species, with hairy surfaces, inhabit the marshes of eastern New England and of 

 Illinois. The shores of the Great Lakes are tenanted by other forms, which are often 

 caught by driving storms and piled upon the low beaches at the edge of the tide. 



In Europe, numerous species occur in almost every coimtry from the north of 

 Scandinavia and Scotland to the borders of the Mediterranean ; but, strange to relate, 

 no forms have thus far been reported from Africa, Australia, the islands of the Pacific 

 Ocean, or the East Indies. On the western hemisphere, on the contrary, they are 

 well represented in most of the large countries, as well as in Central America and the 

 West Indies. 



The preceding forms have generally been referred to a single genus ; but in France 

 and Algeria a more elongated type, Xeptopus, occurs, in which the prothorax is con- 



