408 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 191*7. 



nests. Some of them are carpenters as well as leaf cutters, and exca- 

 vate tunnels in wood before cutting the disks. The lined tube, 

 usually rounded at the bottom, is partially filled with a paste of pol- 

 len and nectar, upon which the egg is deposited and the hole is then 

 stopped up with circular leaf disks a little greater in diameter than 

 the tube itself.^ Like the provident potter wasps the leaf cutter bees 

 also have their enemies; the nests so carefully prepared for their 

 tender offspring are infested by cuckoo bees, belonging to the genus 

 Coelioxys. This genus is represented in the author's collection by 

 three specimens of Coeliowys doliohos Fox (pi. 51, fig. 6), collected 

 on Paradise Key by Mr. Mosier. 



FLIES. 



The Diptera of Paradise Key include many groups zoologically 

 related but with very diverse habits : mosquitoes ; horseflies and deer 

 flies, which not only attack animals but which even pursue automo- 

 biles for miles; robber flies, which catch their insect prey on the 

 wing; flower flies, which feed on nectar and pollen; parasitic tachina 

 flies, which lay their eggs on living insects ; and carrion-eating flesh 

 flies. 



MOSQUITOES. 



Aedes nujer^ the most common mosquito in the vicinity of the park 

 is congeneric with the yellow-fever mosquito {Aedes calopus)^ but 

 it has never been known to communicate a malignant disease. Its 

 bite, though painful, is not nearly so severe as that of certain other 

 species, and is not followed by unpleasant consequences. Volatile 

 aromatic oils rubbed on the face, neck, and other exposed parts yield 

 temporary protection from their attacks, and campers resort to the 

 use of smudges for smoking them out of their tents.^ The writer has 

 already referred to the part played by dragon flies in the destruction 

 of mosquitoes. Their aquatic larvae furnish food for young fishes. 

 Some of the species undoubtedly deposit their eggs in the water 

 reservoirs of the epipthj^tic Bromeliads already described. 



A popular account of the mosquitoes of Florida was published by 

 Dr. Hiram Byrd, of the Florida State Board of Health, in the Medi- 

 cal News, June 10, 1905. 



Among the mosquitoes from Royal Palm State Park determined 

 by Doctor Dyar are Wyeomyia antolnetta, IF. mitchclli, Culex slml- 

 lis, C . peccator^ PsoropJiora posticatus, P. floridensis^ Aedes niger, 

 already mentioned, A. infirmatus, A. soUidtans^ Anopheles quadri- 

 niaculatus, and A. crucians. 



1 See Comstock, Manual for the Study of Insects, 7th ed., pp. 667-668. 1907. 



2 See Howard, L. O., U. S. Department of Agr. Farmers' Bull. 444. 1915. 



