i 
250 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis 
‘‘September 12. The last two or three nights have 
been very cold and today at 9:45 the only life about the 
bank is a lone Tachysphex terminatus, an unfortunate 
caterpillar in the jaws of an ant-lion, and about ten gray 
lizards. None of the white banded females are in evi- 
dence, but in the garden back of the house, eight males 
were this morning found huddled in the cups of as many 
wild bindweed blossoms where they had spent the night. 
The flowers had not closed, evidently because of the low 
temperature, and these male bees found lodging there 
all night, and even at ten o’clock in the forenoon, they 
were in a torpid and lethargic condition, heavily laden 
with dew. This discovery so late in the season also 
shows that they are not shorter-lived than the females 
as we have found for other wasps and bees. By noon 
the bank has warmed up perceptibly, and a few of the 
sun-loving insects are out; one Entechnia taurea hovers 
over her nest; one cuckoo-bee, Chrysis coeruleus lurks 
suspiciously about. At two o’clock the first carpenter- 
bee, Xylocopa virginica, and an Ancistrocerus fulvipes 
are diligently caring for their nests. It is 3 p. m. be- 
fore the first carpenter mud-wasp, Monobia quadridens, 
becomes active about the wood tunnels overhead, and 
even the Chalcid parasites, Monodontomerus sp. lin 
ger to this late date. These meager numbers of each 
species are no doubt indicative of the entire population 
at this time of the year. It is interesting, too, to note 
that despite the fact that most of the activities have 
heretofore ceased somewhere about two in the after- 
noon, we now find these remaining mothers working far 
into the late hours of the afternoon. The day is too 
short for them; they have their tasks and are intent upoD 
finishing them, and in such stress are not guided abso- 
