284 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Oct., '04 



Notes and News. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL GLEANINGS FROM ALL QUARTERS 

 OF THE GLOBE. 



During the summer Prof. H. F. Wickham made another collecting 

 trip to the West. He visited chiefly the little known southern portion of 

 Utah. He went to Utah Lake, Sevier Lake, and Little Salt Lake, in 

 search of variations of Cicindela echo, and made large collections in the 

 vicinity of St. George, Leeds and the Pine Valley Mountains. 



Disposition OF THE de Selys Collection of Neuroptera. — (We 

 translate the following from the Compte Rendu of the meeting of the 

 Entomological Society of Belgium, held May 7, 1904.) M. Severin 

 announced to the meeting that the children of our lamented Honorary 

 President, M. de Selys, have made a gift to the State Museum of the col- 

 lections of Neuroptera of their father, containing the types of his descrip- 

 tions and numerous types of older authors : Hagen, Latreille, Rambur, 

 etc. M. Severin intends to entertain the Society with further details of 

 this new addition to the national collections. The meeting received this 

 communication with lively satisfaction, and M. Lameere proposed to 

 direct the secretary to transmit to the de Selys family the thanks of the 

 Society for this inestimable gift to the Museum of Natural History. The 

 proposition was unanimously adopted. (Annales, Soc. Ent. Be!g. xlviii, 

 p. 180). 



Nests of anthidium illustre Cress. — A clay bank at Denver, Colo., 

 furnishes a veritable mine of interest and information for the entomologist. 

 A number of species have been taken from it. A study of their habits, life 

 histories, enemies, etc., would furnish a full summer's work and the infor- 

 mation obtained fill a small volume. While collecting there three years 

 ago I took a number of woolly nests which afterwards produced specimens 

 of the above species. 



A specimen with a nest was sent to Mr. Henry L. Viereck for determi- 

 nation. He says that the species is undoubtedly A. illustre though dif- 

 fering in maculation, and calls attention to the fact that this case supports 

 the (as yet unproven) theory that all species of Anthidium are " cottoners, ' ' 

 i. e., use a cottony substance in constructing their nests. 



A number of these nests were collected and were, apparently, built in 

 deserted burrows of Anthophora occidentalis with which the bank is 

 honeycombed. In color the nests were either white or brown, the white 

 ones predominating. A microscopical examination shows that the former 

 are constructed of the pile which covers the galls produced by Trypeta 

 bigelovice which are abundant near the nesting place of the bee. The 

 brown cells appear to be made from the pappus of some composite flower, 

 the species of which we were unable to determine. The nests vary some- 

 what in form, but are usually cylindrical, about 20 mm. long and 8 mm. in 

 diameter. They are placed end to end and commonly number two to 

 four in a burrow. — S. Arthur Johnson. 



