SPRING NUMBER 115 
difference in the setting, the clean-cut towering Rockies with 
their exhilarating air in place of the flat landscape draped with 
Spanish moss and enveloped in a dreamy haze, the insect visi- 
tors were much the same, at least as far as orders and families. 
The calendar said April instead of February, but, as in my 
garden today, the peach trees were pink with bloom. But they 
grew in irrigated orchards with a vivid green carpet of alfalfa. 
But not all the lepidoptera here are adult visitors. Some are 
“at home” here, feeding on the leaves. My net gathers several 
unknown species of “measuring worms”, Geometrid larvae; but 
most conspicuous are the Tent Caterpillars, Malacosoma ameri- 
cana. The first warm February days that enticed forth from 
their winter buds the first tender leaves hatched out these cater- 
pillars. Very quickly they will complete their growth, pupate, 
and issue as moths to lay their eggs in a bunch around the 
twigs. Here, protected from rain by a heavy coating of var- 
nish, they will remain all summer and winter. Why only a 
single brood a season, when there is time for a half dozen? 
Many other insects, which can find time for but a single gen- 
eration in the North, produce two or three in the South. Why 
not Malacosma? Why this neglect of opportunity? Is it that 
the insect is, geologically speaking, a recent arrival from the 
North and has failed to change its habits? 
Next to the Lepidoptera, the Hymenoptera are most con- 
spicuous. The major part of the busy hum is due to the honey 
bees. This is their first good “feed” of the spring and they 
are making the most of it. The wild bee, Agepostenon (?) is 
here, a beautiful irridescent blue and green fellow, but a lazy 
profiteer, a parasite on more industrious bees in the matter of 
raising a family. 
The bumble bees are here. Prof. Fattig reports four species: 
Bombus fraternus, pennsylvanicus, impatiens, and separatus. 
But few wasps are about as yet. The common Mud Dauber, 
Polistes, is here as everywhere and a number of Digger Wasps. 
Of the others I have identified only Odynerus capra. 
Diptera, the two-winged flies, are the next most abundant 
group, particularly Syrphidae. Prof. Fattig, who paid especial 
attention to this group, took fourteen species on this date from 
the blossoms of the wild plum. His list, as far as identified, 
follows: FHristalis tenax, E. dimidiatus, BE. vinetarum, E. trans- 
versus, Helophilus latifrons, Allograpta obliqua, Syrphus amer- 
icana, Tropidia quadrata, Syritta pipiens, Psilota buccata, Tem- 
