258 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, 'l2 



watched, then she was left to her work. By 5 P. M. she was 

 not coming to the blanket, so the cell she had constructed was 

 located. It was attached to a fold of the blanket. It was 

 nearly one inch long and something less than half as wide, 

 made of 42 leaf bits overlapping each other and quite firmly 

 held together. Within the little chamber there was a mass of 

 pollen larger than a pea, and as the cell was not closed evi- 

 dently the work of collecting pollen had not been completed. 



Family ANTHOPHORIDAE 

 Melitoma grisella Ckll. & Porter, Syn. dakotensis Ckll. & Porter. 



This bee (PI. XVI, fig. 6) which we have found rare in Kan- 

 sas, has heretofore been taken in this same State by Dr. Snow, 

 who took one male in Wallace County, in 1877 (No. 839). 

 Six additional specimens, 2 $ $ and 4 9 5 , were secured 

 during July and August, 1910 in Rawlins, Cheyenne and 

 Greeley Counties. (A few were found in Grant County the 

 subsequent year). 



The nesting habits of this insect were observed to some ex- 

 tent. Near Atwood, in Rawlins County, the tunnel of grisella 

 was found in a clay bank. It was five or six inches in length, 

 inclined slightly downwards, quite smooth and forked near the 

 end, each branch terminating in a polished cell, stuffed with 

 a mass of yellowish-white pollen. The bee constructs a long 

 arch or semi-tube of clay, which is secured along the bank, and 

 has its upper end terminating at the tunnel. The arch ob- 

 served at Atwood and which is figured in Plate XIV, figs, i & 

 2, was an inch and a half in length, of rough exterior and 

 smooth interior. 



In Cheyenne County, in the extreme northwest corner of the 

 State, a small and rather dilapidated colony of M. grisella was 

 located in a little gully near Republican River. Here three 

 clay arches were seen, with a fourth being constructed or re- 

 paired by a bee. Some old deserted holes here, evidently be- 

 longing to this species, were being utilized by the Crabronid 

 (Trypoxylon texense}, which stored spiders in them. 



