IQOO] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 51 1 



tana, many of which were evidently affected by parasites of various kinds. 

 In the article above referred to, I have stated that nearly half of them are 

 affected by parasites, and subsequent observations but confirm the truth 

 of my first conclusions. Ten of the parasitized cells, which I presumed 

 were occupied by bee-flies, I preserved and put in a box to hatch out. 



That same season one Sphceropthalmia and one bee-fly hatched out. 

 In 1897, two years after, one bee-fly pupated but soon afterwards died. 

 The next season, thinking that the lack of the moisture naturally supplied 

 them in their normal habitat was the cause of their continued quiescence, 

 I kept moist blotting paper in the box ; but though the larvae were quite 

 active and wriggled about the box none of them transformed. In the 

 Autumn of that year I removed from Los Angeles to Clifton, Arizona, 

 and brought the larvae with me. During the winter a few of them with- 

 ered up and died, but in July, 1899, the remaining four, after a short 

 period of pupation, safely emerged. 



These larvae were in my possession for full four years before hatching 

 out. How long they had lain in the ground prior to my visit it is, of 

 course, impossible to say, but one, at least, of these was found in a cell 

 that was surrounded by the rootlets of grass of the preceding season. 



Probably the unnatural conditions under which these larvae were kept 

 may have conduced to their long survival, but in any event the time 

 appears to me a record one. 



In a paper already published in the Entomological News on the 

 habits of Anthidium consimile Ashm., and its long continuance in the 

 larva state, I have suggested that this is probably a provision for ensuring 

 the perpetuation of a race in a climate prone to continuous droughts. 

 This may be another exemplification of the truth of this supposition. 



Two of the species hatched were .sent to the U. S. Dept. of Agricul- 

 ture at Washington and were examined by Mr. Coquillett, who found 

 them to be Anthrax edititia Say, a common species in Southern Cali- 

 fornia.— Anstruther Davidson, M. D., Clifton, Arizona. 



Notes on Anthicid.e. — What seems to be a new species of Stereo- 

 palpus, nearly allied io guitatus Lee, occurs in Colorado. I have many 

 specimens from various parts of the mountains ; it is very sparingly pu- 

 bescent, and It is poss\b\y guitatiis with the spots shaded ; but it occurs 

 in so many specimens that it is at least indicative of an undescribed spe- 

 cies intermediate between guttatus Lee. and pruinosus. Lee. In the 

 genus Anthicus the distinctions between /ormicarius Laf. and cinctus 

 Say seem rather dubious, depending largely upon the granulation of the 

 thorax and punctuation of the elytra. I note two fine specimens of 

 Anthicus leconte Cham, from Gunnison, Col. Among Mr. Wickham's 

 specimens from Brownsville, Texas, I note (11) Anthicus occidentalis 

 Cham. ; (10) Anthicus dromedarius Laf. ; (72) Anthicus spinicollis Laf. 

 My specimens of the latter from Vera Cruz, Mex., are identical with the 

 Texas examples ; provisionally I unite with it (60) and (236) varying 

 somewhat, but not sufficiently to definitely establish a new species with- 



