Coleopterological Notes. 



139 



ARTICLE XIV.— COLEOPTEROLOGICAL NOTES — 

 FAUNAL CHANGES IN THE VICINITY OF CIN- 

 CINNATI, OHIO. 



By Charges Dury, Avondai^e, Cincinnati. 



Fifteen years ago many rare and interesting species of 

 Coleoptera were secured in the immediate vicinity of Cincin- 

 nati, and even within the city limits. The destruction of 

 forest trees and the denudation of hill-sides has converted 

 the former beautiful woodland into sterile clay-banks, the 

 rains washing down the rich black soil, cutting the surface 

 into gulleys and ditches. The poor soil remaining only sup- 

 ports briars, thistles, and weeds. This is particularly the 

 case across the Ohio River among the Kentucky hills. The 

 collector is now obliged to go a much longer distance and is 

 very limited in the area of collecting grounds. The most 

 prolific season of the year is from May 25 to July i. A sandy 

 flat, near Newport, swarmed with Cicindela cvprascens and 

 formosa, with an occasional specimen of the form ge?ierosa. 

 Out of a honeycombed log about twelve feet long I chopped 

 over twenty of the pretty blue Cychrus dndrewsii. Cychrus 

 heros occurred on a hill-side of limited area, along the edge of 

 a woods. The late Mr. Siewers trapped twenty-five, by plac- 

 ing flat stones and bits of bark on the ground, under which 

 the beetles took refuge. He pinned them on a board, and 

 placed them in the oven of the cooking stove to dry. (It is 

 needless to say he forgot them, and they were roasted brown !) 

 Lower Mill Creek, once a clean and beautiful stream, is 

 now a vile, open sewer, destitute of animal life. The banks 

 of this creek produced three species of Omophron. One day 

 I bottled 365, all washed out of a low sandy bank, about fifty 

 feet in length. Of these 180 were tessellation, 147 were robustiim, 

 and 38 americanum. Associated with Omophron were Hetero- 

 cerus and Carabidce by hundreds. Every suitable pool of 

 water was swarming with aquatic beetles of many species. 

 The underside of beech logs, on which was a growth of 

 fungi, produced the curious little Staphylinid, Me galops ccela- 

 tus. Oxyporus of four species were to be found cutting 

 burrows through the tender parts of Agaraci7ice. Many 

 of the beetles usually regarded as rare have a local metropolis, 



(Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XIX, No. 4.) 1 



Printed July 26, 1898. 



