644 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1433 



sents itself but I do agree with the advertising 

 slogan of our railroads that we should "See 

 America First." 



Arthur C. Hardy 



EOCHESTER, iST. Y. 



MUSEUM PESTS FEEDING ON GLYCERINE 

 JELLY SLIDES 



Recently I aeeidently found, in an ordinary 

 box of 100 microscopic slides, two Dermestid 

 beetle larvte, exhibiting what is an apparently 

 new feeding habit for these museum pests, as 

 far as I can ascertain from entomologists here. 



The two larvas I saw at different times actu- 

 ally feeding on the black rim of asphaltum 

 encircling the cover glass of a few slides, two 

 in one part and five in another part of the 

 box. From these was removed from one fourth 

 inch to fully one half of the periphery, ex- 

 posing the mounting medium at the edge. Ex- 

 cess asphaltum on the upper surface was not 

 touched, which shows, as well as do other points 

 given below, that the asphaltum was not the 

 chief attractive food substance in the ease. 



Glycerine jelly was the mounting medium 

 in all these slides. All slides touched were 

 faii'ly thick mounts, all practically thick 

 enough for at least a small larva to get in be- 

 neath the cover glass. Two slides show rather 

 large, broad, irregular tunnels in the jelly. I 

 did not actually see larva at work in the jelly, 

 but sufficient evidence was there. Besides these 

 spaces in the jelly, which could not have been 

 due to any flow of material, or made by any 

 other agent, a gi-eat many larval hairs were 

 stuck around the cover glass, and in decreas- 

 ing numbers, on other parts of the slide, and 

 a cast skin was stuck to one. 



One of these larvse was inadvertently 

 crushed, and the other one later died. A couple 

 of big Dermestid larvae were secured and 

 offered fresh glycerine jelly. They ate of it 

 readily, but I also noticed that they became 

 badly stuck up in a rather short time, and 

 soon died. Such result would be rather fortu- 

 nate for the slide owner, thanks to the con- 

 sistency of the glycerine jelly. If thei-e are 

 few larvae there probably will not be much 

 damage then. StUl some good specimens may 

 be exposed to injury, and this happen long 

 before the injury is noted. It is a feeding 



habit which the writer believes should be taken 

 into account. w. C. Bjjaatz 



Ohio State University 



NECTARINA IN TEXAS 



My" attention was first called to the presence 

 of Nectarina lecheguana within the limits of 

 the United States by a letter from a beekeeper 

 living in the lower Eio Grande Valley, stating 

 that there were insects there which made nests 

 like the hornets and yellow jackets but stored 

 honey like bees. He also stated that they 

 swarmed like bees. An investigation of avail- 

 able literature failed to mention anything fit- 

 ting the description given. A few months later, 

 on visiting the region, several beekeepers eon- 

 firmed the account and I was shown a number 

 of abandoned nests but could find none which 

 were occupied. My interest continued and I 

 endeavored to secui-e specimens from friends 

 living there. A few live insects were sent me 

 in an ordinary queen cage. These were for- 

 warded to the National Museum for identifica- 

 tion and were identified by S. A. Rohwer as 

 N. lecheguana. This species is recorded com- 

 monly from Mexico to Brazil, but so far as can 

 be ascertained there is no previous record of 

 its appearance north of the Rio Grande River. 

 I have been unable to find any indication of its 

 occui-rence farther north than about twenty 

 miles of Brownsville, Texas. 



In the early summer of 1920 I secured a large 

 colony which was shipped in its original nest 

 to Hamilton, Illinois, in a cage by express. A 

 few days after the nest was placed in the open, 

 the insects absconded and were not located 

 again for some time. They built a new nest as 

 large as the old and at least one division estab- 

 lished itself, but the third nest was much 

 smaller. Since the insects can stand but little 

 frost they could not survive an Illinois winter 

 in the open. 



These insects are remarkable in possessing 

 so many characteristics of both bees and wasps. 

 As already stated they make large paper nests 

 like the wasps but they store up honey like 

 the bees. When they sting, they lose their 

 stings as do the honeybees. They show little 

 resentment when one approaches the nest and 

 I found no difficulty in observing their actions 

 at close range. Wben a forager returned from 



