PSWIGLELE: . 343 
PSY OPER. 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., MAY 1882. 
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CORRESPONDENCE. 
Baron C. R. Osten Sacken, ina letter dat- 
ed at Heidelburg, 9 June 1882, calls attention 
to observations which he made many years 
ago, during his residence in Washington. 
D. C., and which are similar to those record- 
ed by Mr. W: Trelease in the February nu- 
mero of PsycHE, in an article entitled ‘‘Un- 
usual care of ants for aphides.” 
Baron Osten Sacken has _ obligingly 
furnished the following translation of a short 
article on the subject. which he published in 
the Sfettiner Entomologische Zettung, in 
1862 (p. 127-128). 
ANTS AND APHIDES. 
Huber made the observation that certain 
ants erect a kind of shelter for the aphides 
which they use as milch cows, fastening it 
to the twig or stem upon which these plant- 
suckers are living. I do not remember the 
details of his observations, and have no copy 
of his work within reach. As far as I know, 
the observation has not been repeated since; 
at least when Kirby and Spence speak of it. 
it is evidently on Huber’s authority. I hope. 
for this reason, that two similar observations, 
which I made in the United States. may be of 
some scientific interest. 
On a horizontal twig of a juniper (F. wer- 
gintana). about five feet from the ground, I 
observed a colony of a species of Lachnus. 
A small reddish ant with a brown abdomen 
was diligently working at a_tube-shaped 
structure of a soft, grayish brown, felt-like 
material, enclosing the twig in a kind of 
sheath. The material probably consisted of 
short fibres of liber closely packed together ; 
it had a pitchy smell, burnt well, the smoke 
having the same smell, but stronger. The 
structure was about an inch long and one- 
third of an inch in diameter. 
The second case observed by me was near 
the Berkeley Springs, in Virginia. A black ant 
had built a globular structure of a sandy ma- 
terial, of about an inch and a half in diameter, 
around the stem of an Asclefzas, which was 
closely packed with aphides. Although the 
sand was sufficiently mixed with clay to have 
the necessary consistence, and although sev- 
eral leaf-stalks served as supports, the struc- 
ture was so brittle that I did not succeed in 
bringing it home. 
XYLOCOPA AND MEGACHILE CUTTING 
FLOWERS. 
Miss Mary Esther Murtfeldt, of Kirkwood, 
Mo., writes, 22 June 1882, ‘‘I have repeated- 
ly verified your observations on ‘Xylocopa 
perforating a corolla tube’ in no. 93. 
This great bee is a serious nuisance in our 
flower garden. It is especially destructive to 
the delicate blossoms of Plumbago capensis. 
which are salver-shaped with long, slender 
tube:. Ihave seen a single insect slit up, in 
the manner you describe, as many as fifty 
blossoms in about ten minutes, very soon 
ruining the appearance of the plant. It also 
splits the tubes of the blossoms of the honey- 
suckles in the same way. 
We are also much annoyed by the depreda- 
tions of a Megachile which seems to have a 
very refined color-sense, cutting the lining 
for its cells from our choicest and most 
delicately tinted flowers, being very partial 
to pink, lavender and pale blues and purples, 
while it seldom or never touches scarlet or 
vellow. Plumbagos and pink geraniums are 
sometimes almost destroyed by it.” 
