University Studies 



Vol. XII JANUARY igi2 No. i 



STUDIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BEES 

 « I. Family Nomadidae 



BY MYRON IIARMOX SWENK 



For ten years past the writer has been giving a great deal of 

 attention to our native wild bee fauna, and while his studies in 

 this group were at first strictly taxonomic in character, in later 

 years they developed into a consideration of the general habits 

 and behavior of these interesting and useful little insects, and 

 especially of the role played by them in the pollination of our 

 local entomophilous flora. Four years ago these studies assumed 

 a distinctly more serious aspect when the last mentioned line of 

 research was selected as the specific subject for advanced 

 graduate work, and during the subsequent period these investiga- 

 tions have been furthered as rapidly as the limited available time 

 of the writer permitted. Altogether much useful data has been 

 accumulated, but prior to its publication it is indispensable that 

 all of the species comprising our local bee fauna be correctly 

 identified and that the new forms incidentally discovered be 

 properly described and named, else no lucid or accurate presenta- 

 tion of the observed facts can be made. The present paper, then, 

 is the first of a series of contributions toward a synopsis of the 

 bees of Nebraska, in which all of the species known from this 

 state are to be considered, family by family, all carefully tabulated 

 and listed with brief statements of their distribution, season and 

 abundance, together with the chief citations in the literature con- 

 cerning the previously known forms and diagnoses of the new 



University Studies. Vol. XIL No. i, January 1912. 



I 



