i6 
Annual Reports of Academy of 
Arizona, and Gallup, New Mexico, on their respective sides of the 
New Mexico-Arizona state line and both west of the Continental 
Divide, was productive of important information from the region of 
a limited fauna. 
At Gallup were secured two specimens of one of the strangest 
meloicl or oil-beetles known from our country. Resembling nothing 
so much as an inflated bladder about an inch long, barred with 
cross stripes of black and blood-red, and with wings and wing- 
covers reduced to a functionless minimum, this unusual beetle was 
scrambling over the stony hillside. The species is one of the genus 
Megetra, a truly remarkable member of a family of beetles con- 
taining many weird and striking forms. One of the katy-dids 
sought at both Albuquerque and Holbrook is of infrequent occur- 
rence in spiny desert vegetation. The species is flightless and very 
protectively colored, so the search is a constant and unremitting 
examination of the clumps of wiry scrub or brittle brush. Ocular 
examination must be accompanied by “beating,” which is an 
energetic brushing of the shrubbery with a heavy sheeting net 
supported by a very strong and yet resilient spring steel frame. As 
this is carried on steadily hour after hour, the reader can appreciate 
the collector’s evening rest is fully earned. In fact, probably two- 
fifths of all the Orthoptera to be secured in the western United 
States must be taken in this way, and almost an equal amount by 
similar “sweeping” of grasses and low annuals. The species taken 
by individual location and stalking, or in flight, are far fewer than 
the uninitiated would suppose. There is little of the delicacy of 
butterfly catching in Orthoptera collecting, instead more of the 
swing of the reaper with a suggestion of the carpet beater. 
The Plains of eastern New Mexico were examined at Vaughn and 
Tucumcari,- — the latter pronounced Two-cum-carey. Vaughn is 
quite high for the PIains-6000 feet-and it was not as satisfactory 
a locality as Tucumcari, which is at less than 5000 feet elevation. 
At the latter locality a number of species which we were extremely 
anxious to secure from this general region were taken. Here to 
the west bench-like mesas break the uniformity of the plains, which 
are otherwise quite level, unlike at Vaughn, where they are rolling 
downs. 
In order to determine more clearly to what extent the orthop- 
terous fauna of the Staked Plains differs from that of the surrounding 
