33O O. E. PLATH. 



two or three workers. Although two of the queens constructed 

 egg-cells and oviposited, the young larvae died, apparently because 

 they were not fed. 



That it is possible to rear some, if not all, of our American 

 Bremus species by the methods which were finally adopted by 

 Lindhard ('12), is shown by the following incident, and another 

 which will be discussed in connection with Bremus vagans. On 

 May 26, a queen and two workers of Bremus affinis were confined 

 together. Two days later, the queen constructed an egg-cell and 

 oviposited, but on May 30, it became apparent that she had 

 forsaken her brood. She was therefore set free from a third story 

 window of one of the Bussey buildings, about noon on the follow- 

 ing day, and her eggs and the two workers were turned over to 

 another affinis queen. About five hours later, an affinis queen 

 was noticed examining carefully several second story windows of 

 the building referred to above, whereupon she mounted to the 

 third story window from which the affinis queen had been liber- 

 ated, and attempted to get in. I hastened upstairs, opened the 

 window, and tried to catch her with my insect net, but missed 

 her, and she flew away. About n A.M. on the following day 

 (June 2), she again appeared at the third story window, but left 

 as soon as I opened it, and, to my knowledge, did not return. 



The nesting habits and disposition of Bremus affinis have been 

 discussed in a recent paper ('226), but the following incident 

 seems worth recording. On June 2, a nest-box containing a queen, 

 three workers, and an egg-cell of this species was accidentally 

 jarred. Both, the workers and the queen immediately began to 

 buzz angrily and rush out from beneath the tin can. In doing 

 so, the queen accidentally encountered one of the workers, seized 

 the latter and stung it to death. 



II. Bremus terricola Kirby. 



A queen of this species was confined on May 26, and a few 

 days later three terricola workers were associated with her. 

 Shortly after the introduction of the workers, the queen ovi- 

 posited, and on June 16, the nest contained several small larvae. 

 About two weeks later (July 4), two exceedingly small terricola 

 workers were noticed on the sand pile. They were unable to 

 crawl, and had probably been released from their cocoons by the 



