12 
in new burrows of their own digging. Small colonies often refused 
to leave the cages. Large colonies took boll weevils as soon as offered, 
stung them, and carried them back into the nest to feed the young, 
while some of the less populous communities showed none of the 
hunting instinct and would tolerate the boll weevils for hours or 
even for days. 
It has been observed, too, by many students of bees and other social 
insects, that colonies too much reduced in numbers may become 
listless and discouraged and fail to manifest their normal activities 
and instincts. To this rule the kelep is no exception; nevertheless, 
even in very small numbers or as solitary individuals they do not lose 
entirely their rational demeanor. ‘This self-possession 1s probably a 
consequence of the habit of the keleps to spend considerable periods 
outside their nests patrolling the cotton plants, or standing motion- 
less, waiting for boll weevils or other insect prey. The tempera- 
mental contrast with the honeybee in this respect is very striking. 
The bee is above all, and even to a greater extent than the ant, a creature of 
the crowd. She can live only in the midst of a multitude * Tsolate 
her, and, however abundant the food or favorable the temperature, she will 
expire in a few days, not of hunger or cold, but of loneliness. From the crowd, 
from the city, she derives an invisible aliment that is as necessary to her as 
honey.@ 
POPULATION OF KELEP NEST THE SAME THROUGHOUT THE SEASON. 
The numbers of the insects and young and other conditions inside 
the nests of the keleps in Guatemala have been found to be the same 
after an interval of over six months. The first exploration was made 
at the end of the dry season, in April, May, and June; the second at 
the end of the rainy season, in November and December. Numerous 
‘captive colonies also have been under continuous observation through- 
out the same period. No indication has been detected of any seasonal 
difference of habits, nor is it necessary to suppose that anything dif- 
ferent takes place in order to explain the domestic economy and 
breeding habits of the species.’ 
ONLY ONE TYPE OF WORKER. 
The workers are all of the same form and of nearly the same size, 
with no indications of the existence of a first brood of very sraall 
individuals. In some colonies the workers average appreciably 
larger than in others, but there is no such diversity as among the true 
a Maeterlinck, M., 1901, The Life of the Bee, 30. 
b While this report has been awaiting publication the period of observation 
in Guatemala has been extended through the remainder of the winter and spring 
months. The maximum of breeding activity appears to fall in the dry season, 
at the end of the cotton-growing period, in March and April. Nests excavated 
by Mr. G. P. Goll contained in some instances over twice as many cocoons as 
adult insects. In other seasons this proportion is usually reversed. 
