136 Psyche' [Oct.-Dec. 



Pheidole. V. arctica belongs to the Canadian and Upper Tran- 

 sition zones. Sladen (1918) records it as ranging from N'ova Scotia 

 to Britisli Columbia. It has been recorded from Amherst, Mass., 

 according to Eohwer (Viereck, 1916), and by him included in the 

 list of Connecticut Hymenoptera as probably occurring in that 

 state. The senior author has taken it repeatedly but sparingly at 

 Colebrook (1200-lGOO ft.) during the summers of 1918 and 1919, 

 on the flowers of Spircua salicifolia. Until it was taken by the 

 junior author at Forest Hills during the past sunmier, there was 

 no record of its occurrence near sea-level and in Eastern Massa- 

 chusetts. 



The three observations that go to confirm Fletcher's contention 

 that arctica is a social parasite in the nests of diaholica are the 

 following : 



1. On July 4, the senior author's attention was called to a dia- 

 holica nest attached to the bottom of the back-net of his tennis- 

 court, at the surface of the ground, in a bunch of grass and sensi- 

 tive fern. As the wasps were intimidating the players, the colony 

 was asphyxiated after dusk on July 7 by throwing cloths satu- 

 rated with carbon bisulphide over the nest. On removing the 

 cloths on the following morning, the nest and its occupants were 

 carefully examined. The structure had attained the size and shape 

 of an orange about 12 cm. in diameter, and contained two broadly 

 elliptical combs, a larger, upper, measuring 8 by 6.5 cm., and a 

 smaller, lower, measuring 7 by 5 mm. There were 64 wasps in 

 the colony, 63 workers of diaholica,, a queen of the same species, 

 and a queen arctica. The upper and older comb had two concen- 

 tric circles of capped cells, enclosing pupating larvse and pupae. 

 The open cells contained eggs and young larvae of different sizes. 

 Undoubtedly all the brood in this comb represented workers of , 

 diaholica. The lower comb (Fig. 1) had a single circle of 20 

 pupffi of diaholica on half its area, while the center of the other 

 half was occupied by a clearly defined cluster of 11 very large, 

 elongate cells, each containing a conspicuously large larva. These 

 cells are marked "wdth white crosses in the figure. The remaining 

 cells were very small and short and contained eggs and very young 

 larva3. Evidently all or nearly all the brood, except the 11 large 



