October 1S9*.] 



PSYCHE. 



341 



thick and solid, and covered by two or three 

 layers of circular pieces of rose leaves. 



Megachile scaevus Say. — I find in Dr. 

 T. W. Harris MS. notes, in the library of 

 the Boston Society of Natural History, the 

 following notes on this species. "Nest 

 under a stone Sept. 11, 1S29. Imago, June 

 and July." 



Megachile n. sp?. — Six cocoons were 

 found in blackberry stems (probably received 

 from Mr. James Angus) in tunnels just their 

 size. They did not lie very near each other. 

 The}' are quite tough and thick, and are 

 rounded at one end and squarish at the 

 other. Length .40; breadth .14 inch. 



Megachile brevis Say. — Its cells are 

 like those of M. centuncularis, but the leaves 

 of which they are made are more loosely 

 placed around the cocoon. The leaves are 

 neither those of the rose or spiraea, and were 

 not identified. This is a small species, with 

 the fore tibiae simple, as are those of M. 

 integer Say. The nest, preserved in the 

 Harris collection, is in the museum of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History. 



Megachile integer Say. — The nest, also 

 in the Harris collection, is scarcely distin- 

 guishable from those of M. centuncularis, 

 though the pieces may be a little larger, and 

 the cells a little more flattened. 



Entomological Items. 



Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell of Jamaica is en- 

 gaged in an investigation upon the insects of 

 Custer County, Colorado, with special refer- 

 ence to the origin of the successive faunas 

 found at different altitudes, based upon his 

 collections while resident there. It can hardly 

 fail to give results of considerable general in- 

 terest. 



Out of fifty-seven specimens of Opomala 

 brackyptera collected this season in New 

 England by Mr. A. P Morse, seven (2 J, 

 5 $ ) have tegmina and wings which extend 

 to the tip of the hind femora, the ancestral 

 form thus appearing to an unexpected degree ; 



of twenty-eight specimens in the collection 

 of Mr. S. H. Scudder only one (a $) has 

 wings of this length. 



The U. S. National museum lias recentlv 

 published as a bulletin a pamphlet of about 

 150 pages, amply illustrated, containing ad- 

 mirable '"Directions for collecting and pre- 

 serving insects," by Dr. C. V. Riley; it is 

 excellently planned and executed, with many 

 sensible suggestions. 



A successful visit was made last July by 

 Messrs. S. H. and G. H Scudder to the 

 summits of the White Mountains to procure 

 the eggs of Oeneis semidea. More than fifty 

 females were captured, and about half of 

 them sent to Mr. W. H. Edwards in West 

 Virginia, the others placed over growing 

 grass. More than half of those sent to West 

 Virginia reached there alive and were there 

 confined over growing plants, and from all 

 many hundreds of eggs were obtained. Of 

 one lot of over one hundred eggs laid in 

 Cambridge, July 14, every one that was fer- 

 tile hatched on July 26. The period may of 

 course be longer on the mountain. Mr. G. 

 H. Scudder found a caterpillar which had 

 just reached the last stage feeding at midday 

 on a blade of Carex, and it has since fed in 

 Cambridge quite as much by day as by night. 



The friends and admirers of the late Mr. 

 Henry Wnlter Bates are endeavoring to raise 

 a fund to be presented to his widow as a 

 suitable memorial of their esteem. The first 

 list embraced the names of nearly ninety 

 persons, ami £ 377 has been subscribed. 

 Contributions may be sent to S. Wm. Silver, 

 3 York Gate, Regent's Park, N. W., London, 

 England. 



An admirable and interesting illustiated 

 account of the life-history of Hypoderma 

 lineata. the ox-bot of the United States, is 

 given by Dr. C. V. Riley in the June number 

 of insect life; Mr. Riley also contributes to 

 the same number a highly important descrip- 

 tion and figure of the first larval stage of 

 Bruckits fabae, showing that it has slender 

 and rather long thoracic legs of a peculiar 



