BRIEFER ARTICLES 215 
FLOWER VISITS OF OLIGOTROPIC BEES. 
Since the proof of my last paper in this journal was read I have 
had occasion to doubt the correctness of the statements regarding 
Epeolus, on pages 35-37, and have asked Mr. Ashmead if he still held 
ihe views credited to him. In a letter of August 2, he writes that 
the nests were evidently made by Zxtechnia taurea and that the 
Epeolus was merely entering them, not making them, as he supposed 
athe time. Epeolus, therefore, comes under the same category as 
Nomada. After all, the phenological position of the genus corre- 
sponds pretty well with that of Melissodes upon which most of the 
species are probably inquiline. 
In the table of oligotropic bees Xenoglossa cucurbitarum should be 
ncluded. Lately I have found it collecting pollen of Cucurbita pepo. 
It also visits Citrullus vulgaris, Asclepias Cornuti, Ipomea nil and J. 
fandurata, It has been taken at Ames, Iowa, by Miss Alice M. Beach, 
on flowers of “summer squash ;” at Mesilla, New Mexico, by Mr. 
Cockerell, on flowers of Cucurbita perennis; at Metropolis, Ill., by 
Mr. Hart, ou Martynia proboscidea, and is mentioned in the GAZETTE 
17: 65) under the MS. name X. brevicornis. 1 suspect that all of our 
‘Peciés of Xenoglossa get their pollen exclusively from Cucurbitacez. 
~CHARLEs RoBERTSon, Carlinville, Ils. 
QUERCUS ELLIPSOIDALIS IN IOWA. 
Mr. WILLIAM D, Barnes, of Morgan Park, Illinois, has placed in my 
ay €ns of an undetermined oak, collected by him in 1895 at 
Scott county, Iowa, which proves to be Q. ellipsoidalis Hill. 
Of Scott robe nigh collaborators are preparing a catalogue of the plants 
re uscatine counties for the Davenport Academy of Sciences, 
2ote accom = unable to determine the name of this oak. The field 
ith the sa os = Specimen reads : “Tree with smooth bark, and 
leaves quite ae aspect of Q. palustris.” It isa fruiting branch, the 
Chicago, Nee — rather narrower than those commonly found near 
St0 size m ray ee f frequently be seen on individual branches, or 
"y characterize nearly an entire tree. The acorn is one of 
Closely resembling the one figured in Plate J/, ¢, 
a zal kind, 
: YTANIC. 
ALG ETTE, March 1899.— E. J. HILL, Chicago. 
AZ 
