242 Annals Entomological Society of America [Vol. IX, 



HORN-TAILS. 

 Tremex Columbia Linn. [vS. A. Rohwer]. 



On a number of evenings from July to October, I noticed 

 these horn- tails nervously flying about my mulberry bushes, 

 and finally as twilight fell, selecting a roosting place on the 

 under side of a leaf, and always among the lower branches. 

 Whenever I noticed them during the night or early the next 

 morning, I always found them in the same position. 



On the evening of October 2, one, after buzzing about for a 

 few seconds, alighted on the under side of a low leaf of a sycamore 

 tree, and there she remained, sleeping until dawn. An examin- 

 ation by candle-light at 10:30 found her unchanged. 



While this horn-tail was buzzing about seeking a leaf 

 among the lower boughs under which to sleep, the upper 

 branches of the old sycamore were filled with uproarous sparrows 

 but she feared them not and sought her place and went to sleep, 

 while a little later the sparrows did the same. This circum- 

 stance at once suggested an explanation of the usual peculiar 

 choice of this insect. The under side of the leaf, which 

 was invariably chosen, would afford protection from the 

 view of birds, but this only among the lower twigs, which 

 likewise were always selected. It is obvious that a species 

 which followed an instinct or habit of sleeping on the 

 upper side of leaves, or even on the under side of leaves among 

 the topmost boughs, would rapidly be eliminated by the bird 

 population. 



Melissodes obliqua Say. [J. C. Crawford]. 



In an open field which sloped toward the River des Peres, 

 St. Louis, was a burnt area about ten feet square. The grass 

 was burned off, but the charred stalks of weeds two or three 

 feet tall were still standing. 



When walking along a path through this plot at 6:15 in the 

 evening of July 19, we disturbed a number of bees. They 

 buzzed about the plants, waiting for us to go on, excepting 

 perhaps a half dozen which remained undisturbed. Two of 

 these were huddled together on one dead leaf, so frail and dry 

 that we wondered that it did not break down with their weight. 



