THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



28s 



account of the abundance and stickiness 

 of the exudation. 



Mr. H. F. Bassett said that he found 

 many species of galls visited by ants ; he 

 had also noticed them frequented by Ce- 

 tonia inda. 



Prof. Fernald followed with a paper on 

 the Classification of the Tortricidce. 



Dr. Hagen read a paper on the supposed 

 importation of the Hessian Fly, criticising 

 the statements in Bulletin No. 4, of the 

 U. S. Entomological Commission. 



Mr. Riley said that he felt partly inclined 

 to accept Dr. Hagen's conclusions ; yet 

 retardation of development is very fre- 

 quent, and the Hessian fly hibernates in 

 the flax-seed state for several months. It 

 would be possible that young wheat had 

 been pulled up, in the gathering of straw, 

 and the insects conveyed in it, or that re- 

 tarded puparia had been brought over in 

 mature hay or straw. 



Wednesday afternoon, 25th Aug. 1880, 

 a meeting was called to take action upon 

 the formation of a Permanent Subsection 

 of Entomology, and such formation was 

 effected. 



A letter was read from Mr. W. H. Ed- 

 wards, giving an account of numerous in- 

 teresting results in the breeding of butter- 

 flies and some interesting captures. [This 

 will appear in Psyche.) 



Dr. McCook continued his very inter- 

 esting account of the Honey Ants of the 

 Garden of the Gods in Colorado. Two 

 varieties are found, one of which is called 

 mexicanus and the other hortus-deorum. 

 Another variety is found in Australia. 

 The alimentary canal of the honey-bear- 

 ing worker is substantially the same as that 

 of the other workers, and these individuals 

 are only extremely gorged workers of the 

 ordinary kind. The crop is surrounded 

 with strong muscles, which serve to press 

 out the honey when it is to be disgorged. 

 The honey is slightly acrid to the taste, 

 but very pleasant. Oscar Loew says that 

 it is entirely neutral in winter. The Mex- 

 icans use it for an unguent, and also to 

 form an alcoholic beverage. Mr. McCook 

 found the queen chamber eight feet from the 



centre of the nest. This chamber was four 

 inches in diameter. The queen was sur- 

 rounded by courtiers, who by constant 

 nagging caused her to go in any direction 

 they pleased. The workers take care of 

 the larvffi, and seem to enjoy taking them 

 up and setting them down and moving 

 them about, as a mother dandles an infant. 

 They show no special benevolence toward 

 each other, allowing disabled members of 

 the colony to perish for want of care. 

 While they would not wound the abdomen 

 of a honey-bearer, but carried the bodies 

 of the dead to a cemetery, they would 

 feed upon the honey that flowed from a 

 crushed individual. Their legs are pro- 

 vided with combs, with which they comb 

 the hair on their heads and clean their an- 

 tennae and other limbs. They are apt to 

 be infested with mites, which fix them- 

 selves immovably upon the head and an- 

 tennae and elsewhere. The nectar obtained 

 by the workers becomes changed into 

 honey in the stomachs of the honey- 

 bearers. It is much thinner than bee 

 honey, and at first is white; then it becomes 

 of an amber or almost of a claret color. The 

 number of ordinary workers in a colony is 

 legion. Thirty honey-bearers were found 

 in each of ten chambers, making three 

 hundred in all. The honey-bearers were 

 found in July and August, the only months 

 when the nests were examined. It is not 

 known at what other times they may be 

 found. 



Mr. Austin exhibited some plates which 

 are to accompany a monograph of the 

 Silphidoe by Dr. G. H. Horn, and called 

 attention to a supplement to Crotch's 

 Check List of Coleoptera, which he is 

 about to publish ; also to a proposed des- 

 criptive work on Coleoptera. 



Mr. Riley read a portion of a paper by 

 Prof. S. A. Forbes, on statistics of the 

 food of the blue-bird, Sialia stalls. Prof. 

 Cook doubted whether predaceous and 

 so-called beneficial insects were generally 

 of much practical benefit to agriculture. 

 Prof. Cook considers the robin and the 

 blackbird our great friends. Dr. G. F. 

 Waters said that he had found in the 



