HENRY J. FRANKLIN. 347 



yellow pile to the bases of the legs. When this is the case, the species 

 can still be separated from the B . vagans queen by means of the light 

 pile on the sides of its apical abdominal segment as well as by its dis- 

 tinctly larger size and generally finer pile. 



Color Variant 2 . — The color characters of the males are sometimes 

 carried over into the workers somewhat, the workers then having en- 

 tirely light pleura and the third dorsal abdominal segment as well as 

 the first two entirely covered with yellow pile. 



Male Color Variant 1. — The color characters of the females are some- 

 times carried over into the males somewhat, the males then having the 

 lower parts of the pleura covered with dark pile. 



Habitat. — I have records of this species from the Hudson 

 Bay Country and the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and 

 Manitoba in Canada, from all the New England and Middle 

 Atlantic States, except Maine, New Jersey, Delaware and 

 Maryland, and from the extreme western part of North Caro- 

 lina. Though it has never been reported from New Bruns- 

 wick and Maine, it is almost certain to be present in both. 

 It probably is not present in southern New Jersey, Delaware 

 or eastern Maryland. In Virginia, West Virginia, North 

 Carolina and Tennessee, it seems to be confined to the 

 Allegheny Mountain region. If in Kentucky, it is probably 

 confined to the Cumberland Mountains. I have records from 

 Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. It is probably also 

 present in North Dakota. It appears to be a strictly Boreal 

 and Transition form and, though inclined to be rather rare 

 throughout its entire range, appears to reach its maximum 

 abundance in the latitude of northern New England. It does 

 not appear to range into the far north. What are its northern 

 and western limits ? The records of this species from Colo- 

 rado, by Cockerell and Titus (Can. Ent., XXXIV, 1902, pp. 

 37, 39 and 40) are, beyond question, erroneous and were 

 probably based on the presence of the very aberrant males 

 of some other known species, possibly of some Psithyrus 

 males. 



Nests. — I have taken two nests of this species, both in Ver- 

 mont, in early August, in the walls of houses. They were 

 both made of wool material woven together, apparently the 

 deserted homes of mice, and both were severely parasitized 

 by Nephopteryx edmansii Packard. One nest contained five 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC, XXX VIII. 



