Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 
19 
species are so powerful they are capable of nipping a piece of flesh 
from one’s finger, if you are careless enough in handling the creature 
to permit it to get its bull-dog grip. 
From Clovis, New Mexico, the last of the Staked Plains centers 
from which we worked, a side trip of several days duration was made 
into the Pecos Valley of New Mexico, our object being to ascertain 
to what extent this valley was penetrated by the Chihuahuan or 
Eastern Desert influence, as found in the El Pasan region of extreme 
western Texas, an area with which we were very familiar. The 
indications of this influence were marked, even at Roswell, the most 
northern of the two sections examined, while about Carlsbad, 
some distance down stream, the hillsides were well clothed with 
creosote bush ( Covillea ), cat-claw (Acacia), ocotillo ( Fouquieria ) 
and sotol (Dasylirion) , all showing the extension of this truly desert 
element from regions to the southward. The Orthoptera showed 
as clearly as the plant life the nearness to the Rio Grande region 
of western Texas, where we had spent much time in the past 
twenty years. An old friend among the plants of western Texas, the 
black brush (Flour ensia cernua ), was found near Carlsbad, and 
search made at once for a most striking genus of grasshopper, which 
we had discovered some years ago was almost entirely restricted 
to it as a host plant, finally brought our little acquaintance to light. 
From the Pecos Valley a long zig-zag journey was made to the 
first station of the Colorado section of our trip, a journey which 
took two nights and a clay and a half of nearly continuous travelling, 
although the actual air-line distance was not more than four 
hundred and twenty-five miles. A lay-over of part of a day at 
Pueblo, Colorado, enabled us to do some work on the “bench” 
near that stricken city. Pueblo was just lifting its head and gath- 
ering its strength for the terrific task of rebuilding and rehabilitation 
after the really terrible floods of June, 1921. 
The usual summer crop of Colorado mountain wash-outs had 
been reported for a very large part of the territory we wished to 
examine in that state, and as we traveled by night from Pueblo 
to Salida by train through steady rain it seemed that the reports 
were justified. Fortunately, however, we were not seriously de- 
layed at any point by rains or washouts, and it was possible for us 
to carry out all of our tentative plans, in fact to make several addi- 
tional productive side trips. Salida is in the valley of the Arkansas 
