1971] 
Barr — Micratopus 
33 
genus are distributed from the Gulf Coastal Plain and Interior 
Low Plateaus of the United States through Central America and 
the West Indies at least as far south as Panama and Trinidad. 
Collections are erratic; the largest series have come from berlesates 
of forest floor litter in swampy areas, or from black light traps near 
marshes and ponds. In Florida Mr. Harrison R. Steeves, Jr., obtained 
numerous M. aenescens from several localities by extracting them 
from leaf litter at the margins of lakes and swamps. In Putnam 
County, Tennessee, I found that I could regularly collect a few 
specimens from the rotting interior of an old chestnut log which 
lay on a small island in a wooded swamp. I took a single specimen 
by sifting debris in the damp, cool, sinkhole at the entrance to Bull 
Cave, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Blount County, 
Tennessee. Casey (1914) states that his type series of M. jus deeps 
was taken by sifting leaf litter in a ravine near Vicksburg, Mississippi. 
The beetles are very active and crawl rapidly away when disturbed, 
but do not attempt flight. I have found them crawling out of the 
top of open Berlese funnels as often as falling through into the 
collecting dish. From all indications Micratopus spp. may be very 
abundant in favorable localities, but special techniques — litter 
processing or use of black light traps in swampy areas — seem 
indicated to obtain large series. These techniques have been seldom 
Fig. 1. Micratopus aenescens (LeConte), Putnam County, Tennessee. 
Length 2.4 mm. 
