154 NOTES ON ANTHOPHORA ABRUPT/ 



little chalcid, the adults of which had not all emerged and were 

 dead as a result of unfavorable rearing conditions. On October 

 27 I dissected these puparia. In order to escape, the chalcids 

 first emerging make a tiny hole in one end of the puparium. 

 This hole either by chance or instinct was made in all cases 

 through one side at the anterior or head end of the hardened 

 case. In one puparium without an emergence hole I counted 

 out one hundred and fifty-two dead adult chalcids. In three 

 others from which most of the adults had emerged, judging by 

 the small emergence holes described above, I found from thir- 

 teen to twenty-two dead chalcids. In another somewhat 

 broken puparium I found seventy-four adults. On the basis of 

 these figures one conopid may produce a surprisingly large 

 numl)er of its enemies, which may possibly be produced through 

 polyembryony. Another check on the ravages of the conopids 

 appeared to be a bacterial disease. Of the forty-nine puparia 

 picked up at the base of the bee bank on July 11, 1919, a majority 

 of them at the time showed indications of such a disease. 



Monodontomerus species (det. A. B. Gahan) is very likely a 

 true parasite of Anthophora abrupta. The pupae of this large 

 greenish chalcid were first found in the bee cells on May 31, 

 1919. As fifteen or more of these pupae, without surrounding 

 cocoons, were found in a single cell containing no trace of any 

 stages of the bee, I assume them to be parasites. The adults 

 first began to emerge in the laboratory on June 11 and were 

 very numerous in the cage on June 14. A careful examination 

 of the surface of the bee bank at Oakwood on July 3, 1919, dis- 

 closed the fact that these parasitic hymenopterans were then 

 abundant around the burrows and tubular entrance cylinders. 

 I have no additional information relative to the habits of this 

 species. It would seem that mating takes place in July and 

 that the eggs are laid in or near the new bee cells. Another 

 species of Hymenoptera was reared about June 1, 1919, from 

 several brownish, rather loosely-spun silken cocoons found on 

 May 31, 1921. Unfortunately the reared adults were lost and 

 I do not know the species involved. These cocoons did not 

 seem to be directly associated with closed cells and I can not 

 state 'what the habits of this species are. In a cell opened on 

 July 11, 1919, I found a fully developed bee pupa which I doubt 

 was Antho'phora abrupta. I tried to rear the adult but failed 



