254 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Octobcr, 



imagoes differed in their form and markings from the original forms. A 

 trial to raise a third generation was without success; the larvae contracted 

 a disease and died. Other food and the change of climate had certainly 

 caused those distinct new forms. — August Merkel, New York. 



How FAR DO THE Bees Fly ? — Many authors have attempted to answer 

 this question, but none have succeeded. Theoretically, the solution has 

 been attempted by counting the number of wing beats per second, and 

 from that to guess the distance the bees fly from their hives. The results 

 have differed widely, varying from two to twelve English miles. Accord- 

 ing to Prof. Marcy's "graphic method," the bees make one hundred and 

 ninety wing beats per second. His method consists in fastening a bee in 

 such a way that its wings are free to move, one of them touching lightly a 

 rotating cylinder covered with a smooth and lightly blackened paper. Prof. 

 Landois, who has studied the sound apparatus of many animals, thinks, 

 from the pitch of the sounds made by the vibrating wings, that they move 

 to and fro at the rate of four hundred vibrations per second — more than 

 double Marcy's results. According to Prof Marcy's figures, one hundred 

 and ninety wing beats per second would bring the bee over a distance of 

 one English mile per minute. If Prof. Landois is right, the distance 

 would be two miles. According to these estimates it would not be far 

 from the truth to say that bees fly about thirty English miles an hour, or 

 that, during an absence of twenty minutes from the hive, they fly about 

 ten to twelve. miles. Most observers, however, are inclined to think that 

 the bees do not fly more than eighteen to twenty miles an hour, because 

 the wing beats of a bee in freedom and under the observer's instrument 

 are not the same. Every one has observed the comparatively slow flight 

 of the bee, when returning home, loaded with honey and pollen. Prac- 

 tical examination shows that experiments of this kind are not entirely 

 reliable. Better results are obtained by observing bees in districts where 

 bees never before were found, or by introducing yellow bees where only 

 gray or brown ones are known, or vice versa. In such cases it has been 

 seen that the bees never went more than four to five English miles aw-ay 

 at the utmost. The usual distance was two miles. One instance is known 

 where a bee keeper on an island seven miles from the coast of Texas 

 found that his bees went to the mainland for honey and pollen. A prac- 

 tical bee keeper does not expect any great results from flower fields three 

 miles away. They should be no more than two miles away in a straight 

 line. — Folkebladet. 



The Association of Economic Entomologists. — The Sixth Annual 

 Meeting of the' Association of Economic Entomologists was held in room 

 12 of the Packer Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y., Aug. 14 and 15, 1894. The 

 following officers and members were present: President, L. O. Howard, 

 Washington, D. C. ; Vice-President, J. B. Smith, New Brunswick, N. J.; 

 Acting Secretary, C. L. Marlatt, Washington, D. C. Messrs. William H. 

 Ashmead, Washington, D. C; Geo. F. Atkinson, Ithaca, N. Y.; Nathan 



