LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 
U. 8S. DeparTMENT or AGRICULTURE, 
3UREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY, 
Washington, D. C., April 22, 1905. 
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a paper on the social 
organization and breeding habits of the cotton-protecting kelep of 
Guatemala (/’ctatomma tuberculatum Ol.), by Mr. O. F. Cook, Biono- 
mist in Charge of Investigations in Agricultural Economy of Trop- 
ical and Subtropical Plants, Bureau of Plant Industry, and tempo- 
rarily on duty in this Bureau for the purpose of continuing the 
investigations of this particular insect, whose cotton-protecting habits 
he was the first to describe. This report contains evidence to show 
that the breeding habits of the imsect in question, especially its 
methods of founding new colonies, are essentially different from those 
of typical ants (family Formicide) and resemble in important par- 
ticulars those of the domestic honeybee. The possession of this type 
of social organization will, in Mr. Cook’s judgment, greatly facilitate 
the establishment of the kelep in the cotton fields of the South if the 
insect should be able to withstand the change of climate and other 
natural conditions. I recommend that this paper be published as 
Technical Series No. 10. Another bulletin dealing more fully with 
the details of the hfe history of the species is being prepared and 
will be fully illustrated. 
Respectfully, 
L. O. Howarp, 
Entomologist and Chief of Bureau. 
Hon. James Witson, 
Secretary of Agriculture. 
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