Vol. XXvi] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 37 



Two Rare Wasps (Hym.). 



In the Rehn and Hebard material I have found two species of Hy- 

 menoptera which I think should be recorded. 



Mutilla slossonac Fox. Tr. Am. Ent. Soc. XXV, p. 273, March, 1899, 

 Type locality Florida, described from one specimen, a female. A 

 second specimen was captured at Loggerhead Key, Dry Tortugas, 

 Fla., July 8, 1912. This is also a female. 



Sphccius Iwgardii Latreille, described under Stilus in Gen. Crust, et 

 Ins. I, pi. xiii, f. 12, 1806. Type locality, "S. Domingue." There are 

 six specimens from Cuba and one from San Domingo in the collec- 

 tion of the American Entomological Society. R. and H. turned up a 

 female at Long Key, Monroe Co., Fla., July 13, 1912, this being, as 

 far as I know, the first specimen from the United States. GEO. M. 

 GREENE. 



Dragonflies Devouring Winged Ants (Odon., Hymen.). 



On the morning of April 15, 1912, as I was sitting on the hotel 

 porch at New Smyrna, Florida, about 10 o'clock, I observed a large 

 number of dragonflies gathering and circling through the air. The 

 number of these insects increased until they were as numerous as 

 I ever saw insects around an arc light in a northern county seat in 

 mid-summer. There appeared to be several species : one a very large 

 brilliant green, one that seemed purplish and one that was smaller 

 and showed brownish-red. Upon going to the place about which they 

 were circling, I discovered a swarm of winged ants upon a front 

 fence post. These, when they had climbed the post to the top, took 

 wing, sometimes singly, sometimes many at once. The gathering 

 dragonflies would dart upon them and seize and devour them. Many 

 were caught before they were a yard above their starting place. None 

 appeared to rise higher than 20 feet. We watched them for some 

 minutes and in that time, while hundreds took wing, none appeared to 

 escape their enemies. A dragonfly seldom missed his mark. If an 

 ant was missed, another destroyer got it. The dragonflies are gener- 

 ally known here as mosquito hawks. By the time the first colony of 

 winged ants was gone another smaller company made its appearance 

 about the porch foundation and the dragonflies turned their attention 

 there until they were destroyed. AMOS W. BUTLER, Indianapolis, 

 Indiana. 



[This note recalls the observation by Mr. C. W Johnson, recorded 

 in the NEWS, Vol. x, p. 219, Sept., 1899, to the effect that Acshna 

 ingcns, probably the "very large brilliant green" species mentioned 

 above, "is extremely destructive to bees in Florida," and also the re- 

 mark of Mr. Davis, /. c., xxv, p. 191, on dragonflies catching smaller 

 butterflies in the same State. ED.] 



