A CONTRIBUTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF SOME 
SOUTH AMERICAN HYMENOPTERA, CHIEFLY 
FROM PARAGUAY 
[Bye (C S(CIBIECO MEIN Ne = 
MONOBIA Saussure 
On January 7, 1905, I observed a female of the solitary wasp 
Monobia angulosa Saussure var. cingulata Bréthes, entering a small 
hole in the ground. When this hole was carefully opened it showed 
a vertical channel widening a little beneath, 4 cm. long, terminating 
in a globular cell 12 mm. in diameter. In this cell nine larve of 
a noctuid were packed close together. They were of a green color 
with white lateral stripes and measured 10-12 mm. in length. Under 
these larve, on the bottom of the cell, was found the small whitish 
larva of the wasp, about 2.5 mm. long, apparently but a few days old. 
MEGACILISSA Smith 
On January 12, at 4 o'clock in the morning, a male of Megacilissa 
matutina entered my room, attracted doubtless by the shining lamp. 
It was still night when I was surprised by this singular visitor. 
Megacilissa eximia Smith had been observed on the wing after sun- 
set and before sunrise, but never after seven o’clock in the morning. 
From this new record of a very early hour one may conclude that on 
warm nights the Megacilissz are flying all night long, which may 
explain their comparative rarity in collections. They fly very rapidly 
and it is not easy to catch them, but they are not at all rare. If one 
knows their food-plants, they may at times be seen by thousands, as 
I found in Brazil in the case of M. eximia and here with M. matutina. 
I do not know whether there have been observed any other South 
American bees with nocturnal habits. [Compare the account of M. 
yarrow, Cresson, in Annals and Magazine of Nat. History, December, 
1899, p. 411 —T. D. A. C.] 
FRIESEA Schrottky 
~ in Rey. Mas.:Paul., v (1903); p. 418, andyl.. xtv, fig. 2 a-e, I 
published a new genus of Panurgide, Friesea. Prof. T. D.’A. 
Cockerell kindly informed me that this name was preoccupied in 1895 
* With notes by Professor T. D. A. Cockerell, signed T. D. A. C. 
259 
