Nov., '03] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 305 



How long can yellow-jackets " hold their breath ?" I found this sum- 

 mer that they could live under water an amazingly long time. 



A yellow-jacket's nest the size of my head hung from a rafter in the 

 barn and was evidently going to give trouble, as it \\aspopiitous. At 8 

 o'clock one night I slipped a butterfly net up over the nest and pinched 

 it shut, taking the nest and every wasp. I sunk the net and all in two 

 feet of water, (the water tub), and my brother put a big flat stone on 

 them to keep the net shut and them under water. At 7 o'clock the next 

 morning we took them out. They seemed cold and uncomfortable, but 

 could crawl, and would soon have been ready to do effective business 

 had we not consigned the whole lot to the flames. 



ii hours under water seems a pretty long time even for a yellow 

 jacket. C. A. THURSTON, Kingston, Pa. 



SPHINGID/E collected with the assistance of Mr. Hagen, at Miami, 

 Florida, during the latter part of April and the first week in May of 1901. 



Enyo lugnbris Linn., common; Heierop/a?ies pseudothyrciis Grote, 

 only one specimen ; Amp/lion nessiis Cram., common ; Chcrrocainpa 

 tcrsa Linn., common ; Thorates pergesa, very common; Darapsa por- 

 ctis Hbn., only one specimen ; Dilophonota obscura Fab., not common ; 

 Anceryx a/ope Dru., only two specimens; Ditophonota caicits Cram., 

 only two specimens; Protoparce Carolina Linn., only two specimens; 

 Protoparce cingulata Fab., only three specimens. 



Darapsa porcus has probably never been reported before from the 

 United States of North America, while Hemeroplanes pseudothyreus has 

 seldom been captured as far north as Florida. ' 



Thorates pergesa was the commonest sphinx of the lot, and although 

 it is not to be found in our latest check-list, yet Mrs. Slosson reported its 

 occurrence in numbers several years ago. PHILIP LAURENT. 



"AGAIN, this past summer, Prof. F. H. Snow has led a collecting ex- 

 pedition into a country where no entomologist had preceded him. As in 

 many a former excursion, Dr. Snow chose a field which from its remote- 

 ness and the difficulties and dangers attending its exploration, had been 

 neglected by other scientists, and he has been richly rewarded for his 

 enterprise by the splendid collection of insects secured. 



"The party which left Lawrence, July 2oth, consisted of Prof. F. H. 

 Snow, Dr. Charles F. Adams, Mr. G. P. Mackenzie, of Kansas City, and 

 Mr. Eugene Smith, of Topeka. They proceeded at once to southeast 

 Arizona. The first stop was made at Congress Junction (Martinas), 

 where they camped ten days in the heart of the great American desert. 

 From this point they went by wagon 50 miles across the Cactus Plain to 

 Bill William's Fork, a branch of the Colorado River. When they fin-t 

 reached the stream there was not a drop of water to be found. They had 

 struck a place where the river disappears in the sand, after the fashion of 

 the Arkansas. Three miles further down, however, they found both 

 water and shade, and here they made their camp. 



