256 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, ’12 
Family MEGACHILIDAE 
Anthidium maculifrons Smith. 
From Wallace, Cheyenne, Rawlins, Wichita and Gove Coun- 
ties. 
Two females of this bee were observed nesting in a bank 
of coarse quartz sand, near a colony of bembecid wasps. One 
Anthidium had a practically horizontal tunnel five or six inches 
long, that of the other was about ten inches long and likewise 
subhorizontal. At the end of the shorter galley the mass of 
brown pollen was enveloped in a woolly material which seem- 
ed to be the tomentum from thistle stems (Cirsium), while the 
pollen in the deeper tunnel was surrounded by some sort of 
soft pappus, perhaps from the inflorescence of Cirsium. This 
habit of securing cottony material for nidification appears to be 
a common one in the genus Anthidium, as several European 
species as well have such habits. (See Cambridge Natural 
History, VI, Insects, Pt. II, 45-6, 1899.) 
Dianthidium concinnum (?) Cress. 
Three females from Sheridan, Cheyenne and Greeley Coun- 
ties, July and August. Nests were found on twigs in Sheridan, 
Cheyenne and Lane Counties, and at least that found in Sheri- 
dan County belonged to D. concinnum (?), since the insect 
was taken from one of the cells. , There is, in addition, a nest 
in the collection from Beaversville, Okla. (April 28, 1905, 
C. O. Tannehill, Lot 906), which undoubtedly is the work of 
Dianthidium. 
The nest of this insect is composed of pebbles glued to- 
gether with a resinous cement, which may be derived from 
the stems of Helianthus which are often infested with a small 
lepidopterous borer that causes an exudation which usually 
attracts a host of Hymenoptera. The cells of the nest are 
provisioned with pollen and closed by the adult. (See Plate 
XIV, fig. 3.) These neat little structures can sometimes be dis- 
cerned from a distance on twigs when brought up against the 
skyline. Two nests were found on trees, one on a Salix, the 
second on a Cerasus, while the third was on a tall dry mustard 
plant (Brassica). 
