REPORT ON A SMALL COLLECTION OF INSECTS MADE DURING THE 

 DEATH VALLEY EXPEDITION. 



By C. V. Kii/ey, 



With supplementary reports and descriptions of new species by 



S. W. Williston, P. E. Uhler, and Lawrence Bruner. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In connection with the Death Valley Expedition organized by Dr. 

 Merriam arrangements were made to have Mr. Albert Koebele, one of 

 the agents of the Division of Entomology, stationed at Alameda, in Cali- 

 fornia, join the party with a view of making a collection of the insects 

 of the region. He collected assiduously during the brief period of his 

 connection with the expedition, which was suddenly interrupted by a 

 decision to have him proceed to Australia to study and introduce into 

 California certain beneficial insects. He separated from the rest of the 

 party to return to Alameda the latter part of May and the collecting 

 was done during the months of April and May. The material was for- 

 warded without report prior to his leaviug for Australia, so that the 

 specimens are, as a rule, without notes, whether of food-plant, or habit. 

 The collection is also necessarily very incomplete in not representing 

 the fauna of the region in the same degree as it would have done had 

 Mr. Koebele been allowed to continue throughout the expedition. 



It may be. premised in making a report on any such collection as this, 

 that there are few parts of the country, however well explored, that 

 will not yield to the entomologist, in a few days' collecting, a good per- 

 centage of species that are new or undescribed, if all orders are taken 

 into consideration, and this being true of the older settled portions of 

 the country, it is true to a far greater extent of such exceptional re- 

 gions as those included in the Death Valley Expedition. Insects are, 

 also, so numerous in species and specimens, and the undescribed ma- 

 terial so vast, that the orders may be compared with the classes in the 

 other groups of animals so far as reporting on them is concerned, and 

 no entomologist would consider himself competent at the present day 

 to intelligently report on any general collection, which must be dealt 

 with by the several specialists who have made particular study of spe- 

 cific families and orders. The part which I have prepared is simply a 

 list of the species easily determinable either by comparison with the 

 national collection or by reference to authorities in the several families, 



235 



