226 SEVENTEENTH Report STATE ENTOMOLOGIST OF MINNESOTA—1918 
CERCERIDAE 
Mesosternum not produced into an elongate process; femora normally not swol- 
len in the middle, prepectus wanting; antennae inserted much above clypeus; cheeks 
broad, first abdominal segment much narrower than second; lower posterior margin 
of propodeum rounded; a dorsal plate to mesepisternum. 
Members of the 
genus Cerceris make 
burrows in the ground 
and store them with 
beetles. | These bee- 
tles when captured 
are stung between the 
pro- and meso- thor- 
ax. Some European 
species ‘store their 
nests with bees, others 
Fig. 115. Cerceris fasciola Cress., female. 
with beetles. 
We figure Cerceris fasciola Cress., from a Minnesota specimen. 
Viereck took Cerceris sp. on goldenrod and aster in Aug. and 
Sept. in Rock and St. Louis counties. 
SuBORDER APOIDEA 
A deep constriction at the base of the first abdominal segment, conspicuously 
separating the abdomen from the thorax; abdominal segments not strongly differen- 
tiated as petiole and gaster; tegulae present, wings usually well developed, sometimes 
vestigial or lost; pronotum with its hind angles or tubercles always distinetly remote 
from tegulae; hairs of dorsulum branched ar plumose. 
With few exceptions, these are all “bee-like” in appearance, differ- 
ing of course from certain bee-mimicking flies (Syrphidae and Bomby- 
iiidae) by the presence of two pairs of wings instead of one pair. Some- 
thing like a thousand species are known to occur in North America. 
Individuals are more or less hairy, and the tongue is always formed 
for lapping, the hind legs are generally modified to carry pollen. 
HALICEID AE 
Females and most males with a flat triangular area on the apical dorsal abdominal 
segment; clypeus hardly protuberant; labrum concealed except at base, posterior 
angle of mandible not in front of posterior margin of eye; tongue acute, flat, rarely 
filiform; labrum not free from mandibles and not as large as eclypeus; hind meta- 
tarsus invariably narrower than tibia; marginal cell acute toward front edge of 
wing; basal vein forming more or less perfectly an are of a circle; face with no pube- 
sent depressions of fovae. 
These are very small, for the most part short-winged solitary 
bees (i.e., no specially developed workers), some of them brilliantly 
