256 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, 'l2 



Family MEGACHILIDAE 



Kcpy 

 Anthidium maculifrons Smith. ^ pOf"" 



From Wallace, Cheyenne, Rawlins, Wichita and Gove Coun- 

 ties. 



Two females of this bee were observed nesting in a bank 

 of coarse quartz sand, near a colony of bembecid wasps. One 

 Anthidium had a practically horizontal tunnel five or six inches 

 long, that of the other was about ten inches long and likewise 

 subhorizontal. At the end of the shorter galley the mass of 

 brown pollen was enveloped in a woolly material which seem- 

 ed to be the tomentum from thistle stems (Cirsium}, while the 

 pollen in the deeper tunnel was surrounded by some sort of 

 soft pappus, perhaps from the inflorescence of Cirsium. This 

 habit of securing cottony material for nidification appears to be 

 a common one in the genus Anthidium, as several European 

 species as well have such habits. (See Cambridge Natural 

 History, VI, Insects, Pt. II, 45-6, 1899.) 



Dianthidium concinnum (?) Cress. 



Three females from Sheridan, Cheyenne and Greeley Coun- 

 ties, July and August. Nests were found on twigs in Sheridan, 

 Cheyenne and Lane Counties, and at least that found in Sheri- 

 dan County belonged to D. concinnum (?), since the insect 

 was taken from one of the cells. There is, in addition, a nest 

 in the collection from Beaversville, Okla. (April 28, 1905, 

 C. O. Tannehill, Lot 906), which undoubtedly is the work of 

 Dianthidium. 



The nest of this insect is composed of pebbles glued to- 

 gether with a resinous cement, which may be derived from 

 the stems of HeUanthus which are often infested with a small 

 lepidopterous borer that causes an exudation which usually 

 attracts a host of Hymenoptera. The cells of the nest are 

 provisioned with pollen and closed by the adult. (See Plate 

 XIV, fig. 3.) These neat little structures can sometimes be dis- 

 cerned from a distance on twigs when brought up against the 

 skyline. Two nests were found on trees, one on a Salix, the 

 second on a Cerasus, while the third was on a tall dry mustard 

 plant (Brassica). 



