Insects 195 



Milwaukee. The Peckhams did not find, however, that wasp 

 instinct was as infallible as some people suppose. There was a 

 difference in the behavior of individual wasps, some showing 

 more ability than others. Sphex wrightii of Cresson is a small 

 very slender red species, peculiar for having only two cubital cells 

 in the front wings. It was taken by Mr. Clarence Custer at 

 White Rocks in 1925. Owing to the peculiar venation, this has 

 been referred to the genus Coloptera, but it seems not to belong 

 to that Old World group. 



The Bembicidae are active wasps which nest in the ground 

 and provision their nests with flies. We have three or four 

 common species, the habits of which have been studied by Mr. 

 S. A. Rohwer. The Crabronidae include many small species, of 

 which the most remarkable is Crabro latipes Smith, very common 

 in the mountains. The males of this insect have the front legs 

 expanded into enormous shining plates. The front wings of the 

 Crabronidae have only one cubital cell. 



The Chrysidoidea or Cuckoo-wasps are not closely related to 

 the wasps described above. They are brilliantly colored insects, 

 usually green or blue, with apparently only three abdominal 

 segments. They are parasitic in the larval state. 



BEES 



The bees of Colorado, as at present known, include 779 

 species. It is a question whether, eventually, Colorado or Cali- 

 fornia will prove to have the greatest number of bees of any State 

 in the Union. Mr. P. H. Timberlake, who is working on the 

 bees of California, especially in the region about Riverside, 

 catches something new every time he goes collecting, to judge 

 from the letters and specimens lately received from him. That 

 we do not know all the bees of Colorado is well shown by the fact 

 that last summer Mr. Chas. H. Hicks went out to collect on the 

 University grounds, near the gymnasium, and obtained Anthi- 

 diellum gilense, originally described from the Gila River in New 

 Mexico, and A. robertsoni, previously known from California. 

 Living here for 20 years, I had never suspected that they existed 

 in the vicinity. At the moment these lines are written, 12 new 

 species of Colorado bees are awaiting publication. 



