HENRY J. FRANKLIN. 313 



has recorded it from Montreal in Quebec. My most western 

 records are Logansport, Louisiana and Lincoln, Nebraska. 

 These records seem to mark about the western limits of the 

 species as Mr. Swenk (Ent. News, July, 1907, page 296) 

 reports it from eastern Nebraska only, but it may possibly 

 range as far west as the eastern slopes of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. It seems to be confined pretty strictly to the Transi- 

 tion and Upper and Lower Austral Zones, though it runs 

 over into the Tropical Region somewhat in southern Florida. 

 It is a common species throughout the greater portion of its 

 habitat. I have no records from Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas 

 or the Dakotas, but it seems probable that the species is 

 present in at least the eastern parts of those states. 



Nests. — I have taken several nests of this species and have 

 known of their being taken by others and, as far as I have 

 been able to ascertain, they are invariably subterranean and 

 the colonies often consist of a very large number of indi- 

 viduals. The largest B om bus colony v^hich I have ever taken 

 belonged to this species, and was taken at Amherst, Mass., 

 August 31, 1904. It contained three hundred and forty indi- 

 viduals, of which four were queens and fifteen were males. 

 This nest was made of old grass and was located in an old 

 mouse burrow two and one-half feet below the surface of the 

 ground. It was very loosely constructed, the comb even not 

 hanging together well when removed from the nest ; in fact, 

 the majority of the cells seemed to be entirely separate one 

 from another. Of the three hundred and thirty unbroken 

 cells found in the nest, one hundred and fifty-four were 

 queen cells and the majority of the young inside them were 

 still in the larval state. . The queen cells were more or less 

 foot-ball shaped and averaged about eighteen millimeters in 

 length. The remaining cells varied considerably in size, 

 being on the average a little more than one-half as long as 

 the queen cells. 



B. bimaculatus Cress, is by far the closest ally of this spe- 

 cies. The females of these two species can always be readily 

 separated by the difference in the length of their malar 

 spaces and by the difference in the coloration of the pile on 



TRANS. AM. BNT. SOC, XXXVIII. (40) 



