191Jf.] Animal Life of ISJ^oeth Carolina 81 



Considerable unrecorded collections have been made by Mr. 

 Fiske at Tryou. and by Mr. Beutenmuller among the Black 

 Mountains. So it can be truly said that while our records may 

 look formidable to the layman they in reality represent only 

 a fair start on the list of beetles for the state. 



(7) In the group comprising the Ants, Bees and Wasps 

 very little thorough work has been done, and still less has been 

 published. A paper on the '"^Ants of ]^orth Carolina" by Dr, 

 W. M. Wheeler has been published, based largely on material 

 collected by Mr. Beutenmuller in the Black Mountains. This 

 group as a whole is beneficial and only a small proportion of 

 the si^ecies are even, potentially threatening to agriculture, and 

 as many of them can sting, the collecting of them is attended by 

 a certain degree of difficulty. Hence it happens that up to the 

 present no resident collector of the state has become especially 

 interested in the group, and many hundreds of our native forms 

 are yet unrecorded. 



Aside from the records from specified localities, our records 

 show many species of insects which are credited merely to 

 "JSTorth Carolina," with no indication of the locality where, or 

 season when, they were collected. Such records are for the most 

 part relics of the earlier days when collectors had not yet 

 realized the value of locality and season records. But we now 

 fully realize that to say that a specimen came from "JSTorth 

 Carolina" means very little, for a considerable number of our 

 eastern insects show affinities with the fauna of Florida, while 

 many from the mountains suggest the fauna of Canada or the 

 White Mountains of ISTew England. 



It would not be fair to leave this consideration of our insect 

 fauna without naming some of those whose labors have added 

 most to our knowledge. Of persons from outside the state who 

 have collected here may be mentioned Prof. Morse of Wellesley 

 College, Mr. C. W. Johnson of Boston, Mrs. Slosson of Staten 

 Island, Mr. Beutenmuller of 'New York, Messrs. Laurent, Kehn 

 and Hebard of Philadelphia, and Messrs. Hubbard, Schwarz, 

 Banks and Fiske of Washington. Of outsiders who have iden- 

 tified a material portion of our difficult species may be men- 

 tioned Messrs. Schwarz, Heideman, Banks, Dyar, Coquillett, 



