THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 231 



HYBERNATION OF FORMICA HERCULEANA, Linn. 



BV G. J. BOWLES, MONTREAL, P. Q. 



On the 2oth October last, when in Brighton, Ont., I went to the woods 

 in search of hybernating insects, and while examining the prostrate trunk 

 of a small pine, found several female specimens of our large black ant, F. 

 herctileana (Ug7iipcrda Latr.) in their winter quarters. Each ant was in 

 an oval excavation in the wood, just under the bark, about an inch long 

 and half an inch wide and deep. In each cell was found a single % ant, 

 together with from six to fifteen larvag. On tearing off the bark, about 

 half a dozen cells were exposed, on different and widely separated parts 

 of the trunk. In one or two instances there was a single worker ant with 

 the large % . The larvse were about an eighth of an inch long, and were 

 all alive. They were, in every case, crowded together in a mass, each 

 one in the same position, with the head bent over in front. This observa- 

 tion is, I think, interesting, as it gives a clue to the manner in which 

 colonies of this wood-destroying ant are established. It is probable that 

 the mother ant and the larvae would survive the winter, and be ready in 

 spring, as soon as the larvae had become perfect insects, to begin opera- 

 tions from the cell in which they had hybernated. The cells were very 

 neatly excavated, and each seemed to have been entirely the work of the 

 % ant which occupied it, as there was no connection with any other cell, 

 and the surface of the trunk around each was perfectly smooth and unin- 

 jured. Nor were there any galleries extending from the cells into the 

 wood of the tree, as I proved by close examination. 



NOTES ON ACMAEODERA PULCHELLA, Hbst. 



r.Y C. H. T. TOWNSEND, CONSTANTINE, MICH. 



The common species of Acmaeodcra, A. pulchella Hbst., which is 

 marked with shining bronze-black and bright yellow, assimilates well in 

 color with the flowers of Rudbeckia hirta L., so abundant along the edges 

 of cultivated fields, upon which this Buprestid is found. The dark parts 

 of the beetle, which are after an etched pattern, blend well with the rich 

 dark stigmata of the flower, as the beetle lies next to these ; while the 

 bright yellow parts easily pass unnoticed in the inside border of the yellow 

 corolla. It is noticeable that these flower-frequenting species are found 



