THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 277 



COLLECTING BEES AT GUALAN, GUATEMALA. 



BY WILMATTE P. COCKERELL, BOULDER, COLORADO. 



In going from Quirigua to Guatemala City, we passed through 

 a desert region — a place of curious forms of cacti, but especially 

 interesting because cf the trees and vshrubs, at that time of the year, 

 late February, covered with splendid blossoms, and usually with- 

 out leaves. One tree {Gliricidia maculata H . B.K.) was very common 

 and with its delicate pink flowers reminded one of the peach of the 

 temperate zone, but inspection showed it to have a papilionaceous 

 flower. This, I thought, would be a wonderland for bees, since 

 bees are peculiarly adapted to desert areas. 



When we returned to Quirigua, I determined to spend two or 

 three days at Gualan, and I anxiously inquired of every one whether 

 there was some one in the village who would befriend me, a mission- 

 ary perhaps, a priest, an American who owned a coffee finca or a 

 hotel-keeper who spoke English; and at last I found a young man 

 who sometimes went to Gualan to buy cattle for the commissary of 

 the United Fruit Company, and he said there was a hotel and that 

 the negro-French proprietor did speak English, but that the place 

 was usually full of drunken natives and was absolutely impossible 

 for an American lady. That settled the hotel question, but I could 

 at least go up between trains, though even for so short a time it was 

 not considered wise for me to go alone, and Mr. Earl Morris was 

 detailed to go with me. There was much joking about the biological 

 altar needing a sacrifice, for my friends at Quirigua were archaeologists 

 and were uncovering one of the wonderful old Maya temple cities, 

 and bees looked very small to eyes focused for forty feet doorways. 

 But Mr. Morris was a splendid assistant, and helped in every 

 way, even if in his heart he was sighing for sculptured walls and 

 ornate pottery. The train left Quirigua at ten o'clock and arrived 

 at Gualan at eleven-thirty, the down train picked us up at two- 

 thirty. It was a wonderful three hours ! The lovely pink and 

 white blossoms of Gliricidia maculata were visited by great Carpenter 

 bees (Xylocopa), but unfortunately the flowers were so high, and the 

 bees flew so swiftly that I secured only a few specimens. 



The best catch of that day was a very small bee belonging to the 

 genus Perdita, and if you saw it I am afraid you would agree with 

 the Indians who said, "So small bugs can be of no use." The Per- 

 ditas are among the smallest of bees, and yet the finding of one on 

 Cordia alba, a yellow flowered tree, at Gualan, was a distinctly 

 dramatic and interesting thing to me. Years ago my husband de- 

 scribed seventy of these small bees which he had collected in New 



September, 1912 



