214 Journal New York Entomological Society. [Vol x. 



There are doubtless other records, but sufficient has been given to 

 show that various bees and fossorial Hymenoptera have curious sleep- 

 ing habits. The exposed position and the use of the mandibles are 

 very remarkable. That a bee or wasp can support its body horizontally 

 all night by the jaws alone seems almost beyond belief. It would seem 

 to indicate that their sleep is of an hypnotic sort. A great majority 

 of the known cases are males. ^Vhere do the ladies sleep ? Again 

 why do different genera associate at the same hotel? Indeed the 

 observations lead to dozens of puzzling questions whose solutions can 

 only be found by t'uture field ob.servations. 



BORING NOCTUID LARV^. 



Bv Henry Bird. 



Self-preservation being one of nature's primary laws would incline 

 us to believe that a boring, and consequently hidden larva, had 

 selected a strategic j)Osition far ahead of the exposed feeders, and that 

 we might e.xpect to find them or their imagoes as pred> mina ing 

 species. The act of boring doubtless dates back to the earliest larval 

 conditions and with our Noctuids many still cling to this trait, though 

 it is subject to various modifications. But when it comes to finding 

 the imagoes of the more astute borers, at large in nature, we simply 

 do not find them, and attention has to be directed to their larva?, 

 where more prolific results await us. Here there are many evidences 

 at hand that would tend to disprove anv theories of a charmed or 

 undisturbed existence, and a host of facts sufficiently divergent to 

 interest us become apparent, so that hypothetical lines may be dropped 

 to await a better information. Among the more important Noctuids 

 belonging to the Agrotid and allied classes, a more or less universal 

 habit of burrowing in the ground by day or seeking a similar seclusion 

 under convenient objects, reflects perhaps a retention of ancestral 

 propensities. Certainly one species, not far removed here, Macro- 

 noctiia oiiusta, can claim distinction to being a full-fledged borer, and 

 the heavy Nociuid pattern points back surely to an early type. Y t 

 the larva shows a very full line of develoj^ment and constitutes a good 

 exami)le of what we may expect of such conditions. A general infor- 



