10 Insects of New York 



The Champlain Valley is a broad open valley similar in conditions and 

 fauna to the St, Lawrence Plain. There is a good list of Lepidoptera from 

 Plattsburg, showing a typical Transition fauna and containing many 

 southern forms. The fauna of Peru is more northern in character, and 

 represents the broad sandy area on the eastern side of the Adirondack 

 district, with peculiar dune forms. The area as a whole has not been 

 sufficiently studied. 



The Hudson Valley is an open valley with a decidedly Austral character, 

 especially south of Albany; northward it is narrow and broken, with a 

 Transition fauna continuous with that of the Champlain Valley but show- 

 ing a greater dominance of acid-soil forms in the Lepidoptera than any 

 other part of the State in which the writer has collected. There are sev- 

 eral good lists, especially those based on the material from the vicinity of 

 Albany in the State Museum, and from a group of localities in the lower 

 valley collected by Dyar and by the New York City entomologists. 

 Florida, in Orange County, where S. W. Frost did some collecting, is in 

 an extension of this district across to the Delaware River, and shows the 

 same rather warm conditions. 



The Ta conic district consists of a sharp range of mountains extending 

 along the eastern edge of the State, continuous with the Green Mountains 

 of Vermont on the north, and with the Berkshire Hills on the east. To 

 the southward they are separated from the Highlands of the Hudson only 

 by the narrow gorge of the Hudson River. They have not been properly 

 explored entomologically, the few short Taconic lists of insects being from 

 the warmer deep valleys ; but they show a true Canadian fauna with many 

 acid-soil forms, like the Berkshires just across the state line. 



The Nezv Jersey Highlands and the Highlands of the Hudson represent 

 the same wooded hilly area, continuous with the Taconics and Green 

 Mountains on the north and the Blue Ridge on the south. The insects of 

 this district have not been thoroughly collected, but the fauna of its exten- 

 sion into New Jersey shows a Transition character with woodland forms 

 dominant because of the low altitudes, but with few of the cooler Transi- 

 tion forms. 



New York City is not really a separate district, but it is particularly well 

 known. The climate is practically Upper Austral, with some cooler areas 

 in Westchester County. The country is hilly and originally was wooded, 

 showing the forest type. The exact locality of many of the earlier records 

 given as New York City and vicinity is very uncertain, a large region 

 including Long Island, Staten Island, the lower Hudson River Valley, 

 and part of New Jersey, being included. 



The Coastal Plain comprises the whole of Long Island and Staten Island, 

 with the mainland coast and the vicinity of New York City, just discussed. 

 A great part of it is glacial moraine, more or less worked over by wind and 

 water, and contains areas of sand and gravel and many square miles of 



