1929] 
On the Dryopid Beetle Genus Lara 
331 
Collection, and the private collections of Mr. H. C. Fall, 
Dr. J. G. Gehring, and the writer. 
This series of amplipennis has been compared with the 
type and one other Californian specimen of true Lara avara 
in the Leconte Collection in the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology at Cambridge. For the privilege of making this 
comparison I am indebted to the authorities of the museum, 
and particularly to Professor Nathan Banks, Curator of 
Insects. 
Horn speaks of having seen a specimen of Lara avara 
on a log under water in a swift stream. I found the genus 
only on log jams in large streams which were both swift 
and cold. The insects behave much like Psephenus, but 
are, perhaps, less alert, for they are usually found on the 
lower sides of projecting stubs or in crevices, just at water 
level. They are among the most resourceful of beetles in 
the presence of danger, for they can choose between craw- 
ling down a log into deep water, flying, or dropping into 
the current, which whirls them swiftly away. The ma- 
jority ride the current for a yard or two and then take 
wing. I owe my fine series of the genus almost entirely 
to a systematic but temporarily unsuccessful search for 
Amphizoa striata Van Dyke, of which North Bend is the 
type locality. 
