18 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



made by &lr. Hubbard in the Yellowstone National Park, at Fort 

 Assiniboine, Mont., and at Bear Paw Mountains in northern 

 Montana, in July and August, 1891 ; and the third, a large collec 

 tion made in May and June, 1892, by Mr. Hubbard and himself, 

 in parts of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. 



THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1893. 



In the absence of the President and the Vice-Presidents, Mr. E. 

 W. Doran was elected to the chair. There were ten members 

 present. 



The first paper of the evening was the following, by Mr. Frank 

 Benton, and was accompanied with an exhibit of the objects 

 described : 



THE CURIOUS DEFENSES CONSTRUCTED BY MELIPONA 

 AND TRIGONA. 



By FRANK BENTON. 



Some twenty years ago Mr. Ed. Drory, then editor of Le Ru- 

 cher* of Bordeaux, France, himself a skilful apiarist and a 

 student of entomology, imported from Brazil a large number of 

 nests and hives of the Meliponas and Trigonas native to that 

 country and bred some of the species for several years, even 

 succeeding, by extra precautions, in carrying some of them through 

 the winters of his portion of France. Seven species of the 

 genus Melipona and four of Trigona were studied by him and 

 some of his observations were published in Le Rucher for 1873 

 and 1874, while his particular study of Melipona scutellaris 

 was published by himself in pamphlet form at Bordeaux.* Mr. 

 Maurice Girard having visited the apiary of Mr. Drory in the 

 autumn of 18731 and also made some additional observations on 

 the bees of two hives of different species of Melipona presented 

 by Mr. Drory to the Jardin d'Acclimatation, read before the En 

 tomological Society of France, at three of its meetings held in 

 1874, some notes on these bees. Referring to Melipona postica 

 Latr. (M. dorsalis of F. Smith), he said, June loth, of the hive 

 in the Jardin : "' They have constructed outside, around each 

 hole, a very pretty spreading cornet of reddish-brown wax, 

 having the appearance of some kind of crepe or stiff lace." t 



* Quelques Observations stir la Melipone scutellaire, Melipona 

 scutellaris Latr., par Ed. Drory, Bordeaux, 1872. 



t Bulletin de la Societe Entomologique de France, 1874, p. CVI (Seance 

 du 10 Juin). 



