THE GENUS CALOSOMA. 



39 



from Georgia, but it probably occurs in others of them. The collec- 

 tion of the California Agricultural Experiment Station contains 

 specimens from Tulare County of that State, and the species possibly 

 occurs rarely in other far Western States. 



COLLECTIONS AND SHIPMENTS. 



Entomologists in Washington, D. C, about the last of May and the 

 first of June often observe specimens of C. wilcoxi about electric lights 

 in fairly large numbers. Mr. Barber forwarded between May 18 

 and June 7, 1909, 18 males and 31 females. All were alive except 

 one female. A few other specimens were received from the same 

 source in 1911 and 1912. The writers have been able to secure the 

 data set forth in this paper from the parents collected in 1909. 



HABITS OF ADULTS. 



The habits of this species in the field are little known to the writers, 

 since they have not had an opportunity to make observations, and 

 the published records are rather fragmentary with reference to this 

 subject. To obtain an idea of their habits two females were placed 

 at the base of the tree (PI. Ill) in the climbing experiment, June 14, 

 1912. Both of these climbed freely and one of the females was 

 found at the top of the test tree the following morning and had con- 

 sumed two large caterpillars of Malacosoma americana that were 

 placed upon it the previous day. 



FOOD CONSUMED BY ADULTS. 



Of the beetles received in the spring of 1909, five pairs were placed 

 in battery jars and daily records kept of the amount of food eaten. 

 (See Table 6.) The first shipment arrived May 13 and the pairs 

 reserved for feeding and rearing records were offered raw meat for a 

 few days. The beetles partook of this diet rather freely until May 27, 

 when a sufficient number of M. americana caterpillars of medium size 

 were secured and substituted. 



Table 6. — Feeding records of Calosoma wilcoxi. 

 FIVE PAIRS, 1909. 



Pair 



No. 



Received 

 from 

 Wash- 

 ington, 

 D.C. 



Ceased 

 feeding. 



Fifth and sixth 

 stage caterpillars. 



Total. 



Mala- 

 cosoma 

 ameri- 

 cana. 



Porthe- 



tria 

 dispar. 



1791 

 1792 

 1793 

 1794 

 1795 



1909. 



May 18 

 18 

 18 

 18 

 18 



June 27 

 22 

 24 

 23 

 17 



67 

 84 

 61 

 66 

 39 





67 

 84 

 70 

 67 

 40 





9 

 1 

 1 



