2 
Psyche 
[March 
(1928). With the exception of the galls, the other alleged 
insect-produced features have either been misinterpreted 
or the features are of questionable significance. 
Collection and Occurrence 
The specimens described below were collected by the 
late Dr. R. Lee Collins. They are from a clay lens in the 
Holly Springs formation exposed in a clay pit immediately 
southwest of Puryear, Henry County, Tennessee. This 
lens of kaolinitic clay contains an abundance of well pre- 
served angiosperm leaves. Berry (1916 and 1930) studied 
the flora and determined the age of the deposit to be lower 
Eocene. 
Berry (1928, p. 3) interpreted the paleoecology of these 
deposits of crossbedded sands and lenses of plant bearing 
clays to be nonmarine. “The general environmental picture 
of this area during the time of deposition . . ., is of a low, 
abundantly forested, warm temperate coast, with bayou- 
like stream distributaries emptying into lagoons ponded 
behind extensive barrier beaches, beyond which the gulf 
waters were extremely shallow, and not typically marine 
for a considerable distance.” 
Evidence of Leaf-cutting Bees 
In 1916, Berry (p. 33, pi. 107, fig. 5) figured a leaf of 
Icacorea prepaniculata from Puryear, Tennessee, which he 
states is “badly riddled in a manner suggesting the work 
of leaf-cutting bees.” The figured specimen has over sixty 
small, irregular holes. This is not the type of injury pro- 
duced by recent megachilid bees and therefore Berry’s 
alternate suggestion that the holes “are due to a brood of 
leaf-eating caterpillars” is a better guess. Later, Berry 
(1930, pi. 48, fig. 33) figured a leaflet of Cassia fayettensis 
from the same locality with a very irregular saw-toothed 
margin. Small notches variable in size but all less than 
2 mm. across have been cut-out all around its margin. The 
explanation of the figure states that it is “A leaflet show- 
ing an insect-cut margin,” and it is cited (Berry, 1931, 
p. 302) as “a specimen which has been cut in a manner 
which may indicate the work of some lower Eocene leaf- 
cutting bee.” In the same paper, a leaf of Icacorea 
