It is a very common species, and makes its burrows in decayed wood. The future larva is supplied with various insects, mostly gnats and other small Diptera. The larva of this insect is shown at Fig. /

The family of the Philanthidae comes next on oiur list. In these insects the head is always wider than the thorax. The tibiae of the middle pair of legs have a single spur at their tips, and the front tarsi are strongly fringed. A good example of this family, GerceHs arvensis, is shown on Woodcut XXXIV. Fig. 5. The colour of the insect is black, with the face and thorax mottled with yellow. The female has four yellow bands on the abdomen and the male five, and there is a yellow spot on each side of the first segment. In this genus, the head is squared, and the three ocelli are set in a triangle on the crown. The first pair of wings have one oblong marginal, and three cells. The first segment of the abdomen is submarginal narrowed to half the width of the second, so as to form a sort of footstalk. The legs are strong and the tarsi of the first pair are fringed on the outside.

All the members of this genus are burrowers, and this species prefers hard, flat, and sandy spots. It is, perhaps, the most of its genus, and Mr. F. Smith remarks that it is plentiful more miscellaneous in its choice of food for its young than any other of the burrowing Hymenoptera. It always takes weevils,

owing to the vast numbers of these beetles, it has a very but, wide choice. It has been observed to carry off the Nut-weevil nucum), and even the Grooved-weevil {Otio- {Balaninus sulcdtus'). Both of these insects have been de- Thynchus scribed, the former on page 180, and the latter on page 175.

That the latter beetle should be selected for such a purpose is really astonishing. As all entomologists know, its round, liard-shelled body is scarcely pervious to a pin, and, before it can be placed on the setting-board, a needle has to be used in order to pierce the hard elytra and make way for the pin. Yet such an insect as this is actually used as food for the young larva of the Cerceris. Mr. Smith remarks that this difficulty is obviated by a peculiarity in the development of the Cerceris. The egg is not hatched until some days after it has been deposited, so that the dampness of the soil acts upon the hard exterior of the beetle, and renders it soft enough to be pierced by the jaws of the larva.

The Cerceris seems not to be in the least particular as to the species of weevil with which it provisions its nest, but to take any species that may be most plentiful in the neighbourhood of its biuTow. The middle of July is the best time in which to search for this beetle.

CHAPTER IV.

Wasps And Solitary Bees.

We now come to the great group called Diploptera, or ‘ folded wings,’ because in repose the second pair of wings are folded longitudinally. In these insects there are Solitary and Social species, and in all the former there are only two sexes, namely, the perfect male and female, while in the latter there is a third, or imperfect or neuter sex, called the Worker. These are, in fact, undeveloped females. All the females, whether perfect or not, are armed with a venomous sting, the construction of which will be described when we come to treat of the Hive Bee. We know these insects popularly by the name of Wasps, and while some species are familiarly known to all who take the least interest in the works of Nature, others, more especially the solitary species, are utterly unknown except to naturalists.

We will begin with the Solitary Wasps, or Eumenidge, which may be distinguished by the claws of the tarsi, which are double in the Solitary and single in the Social Wasps. On Plate XI. Fig. 1, may be seen two examples of these remarkable insects, one shown in flight, and the other, just below it, engaged in forming its curious nest. The latter specimen, as well as Fig. 3, serves to show the longitudinal folding of the lower pair of wings. The name of this insect is Eumenes coarctata, the only British example of its genus.

In this genus the head is triangular, the wings large, with one marginal and three submarginal cells, and the abdomen is somewhat pear-shaped, the first segment being drawn out so as to form a decided footstalk. Its colour is black, variegated with yellow. The front edge of the prothorax and the tibia3 and tarsi are yellow. The segments of the abdomen are edged with yellow, and there are ten spots of the same colour on the

second segment. This is another of the local insects which are

tolerably plentiful in their limited districts. Mr. Smith mentions Sandhurst and Sunning Hill as places where it may be found in moderate numbers, and Wey bridge as a place where it has occurred sparingly.

This insect is chiefly remarkable for the vase-shaped nest which it constructs from mud. These nests, or cells, are

4 Dasvuod-i ^ Vospa vulgaris, female. .S. Halictus rubicmidus, female. . Dasjpoda hirtipes, female. a. Vespa orabro, bead of male. 6. Dasypoda leg of male vulgaris, head of male. g. Vespa arboica, head. A. Vespa viUgaris, head of female. attached to the twigs of various plants, but especially to the common heath, as is shown on Plate XI. In each of these cells the mother-insect lays a single egg, and then provisions the cell with the larvse of small Lepidoptera.

Before parting with the Solitary Wasps, of which we have so few British examples, we must mention a very interesting

genus called Oclynerus, the members of which make their nests in tubes and hollows of various kinds. Some of them are very fond of boring out the pith of dead rose or bramble sticks, making therein a series of cells, and placing in each cell an egg and a supply of food, such as small caterpillars. Two species, Odynerus Icevipes and melanoce-phalus, adopt this plan, and their curious cells may be found in almost every garden. The former of these insects — a rare species — lines the tube with sand, and constructs the cells of the same material. Some of them, such as Odynerus quadratus, burrow into old wood if they can find no hole ready made ; but if they can, they make use of it. Mr. F. Smith mentions that he has found its nests in the hollow reeds that formed the thatch of an outhouse, and that he has known of a case where it filled with its cells both barrels of a pistol that was hanging to a post in a garden-house. The cells of this species are provisioned with small green caterpillars.

The next family is that of the Social Wasps, or Vespidie. There is but one British genus, namely Vespa, and eight British species, some of which, such as the Common Wasp and the Hornet, are very well known, while otliers are almost unknown except to naturalists. All the species build nests of remarkable beauty, some being built under cover, and some being so constructed that they can endure the open air. I once had a beautiful series of nests- of British Wasps. The collection included not only the nests, but the nests in various stages of progress, from the first cell to the complete edifice, and each complete nest was accompanied by the male, female, and worker Wasp. The collection was made for me by the late Mr. S. Stone, whose lamented loss deprived the scientific world of a laborious, close, and accurate observer.

In all these nests, however different they may appear externally, there are one or two points in which they agree. The cells are all placed with their mouths downwards, and are arranged side by side in regular' tiers, one above another, with just sufficient space between each tier for the Wasps to pass freely. They are all made of a paper-like sirbstance, obtained by tearing off and masticating small fibres of wood, sometimes soitnd and sometimes decaying wood.

Plate Xi. Ants, Wasps, And Solitary Bees.

Formica rufa and nest. 2. Quedius brevis. 3. Eumenes and nest. 4. Vespa arborea and nest. 5. Andrena nitida, 6. Andrena Trimmerana. 7. Cilissa bsemorrhoidalis. 8. Nomada ruficornis. 9. Stylops melittm. Plants : — Harebell. Common Ivy. Heatli {Erica cmcrea), with nest of Eumenes.

We will take first the Common Wasp (Vesjpa vulgaris), Avhich may he seen on Woodcut XXXV., and watch it through the process of making its nest.

In the spring a female Wasp issues from the hiding-place in which she has passed the winter, and begins to search for a suitable locality in which to make her nest. She always chooses for this purpose a hole, such as that of a mouse or rat — generally the former — and, at some distance from the entrance, sweeps away the earth, so as to form a small rounded chamber. Somewhere in the roof of this chamber there is sure to be a root of some kind, and to this root the Wasp attaches a short pillar of papier-mache, somewhere about onethird of an inch in length. At the lower portion of this pillar slie forms a small cell, not a sixth of an inch in length, and after a little while places two others at its side. An egg is then deposited in each cell, and the Wasp proceeds to make a roof over them, shaped just like an umbrella.

More cells are now made, more eggs laid, and the first larvas are hatched, require constant feeding, and grow rapidly, so that, in proportion to their growth, the length of the cell-walls has to be increased. The umbrella-like covering is now too small to serve its purpose, so the Wasp makes a larger one, cutting up and re -masticating the old one. This is always done whenever the nest is enlarged, and it is quite easy to trace the remains of the successive coverings. By this time the larvse are about to change into the pupal state, and each spins a white silken cocoon over the mouth of its cell, thus shutting itself up from all distm’bance. It soon passes througli its transformations, and then bites its way through the cellcover and issues into the nest, a perfect insect, ready to take its share in the enlargement of the nest.

All these early Wasps belong to the workers, and, like the worker-ants, are undeveloped females. They cannot lay eggs, leaving that duty to the oz’iginal queen, if we may so eall her ; but they can, and do, collect materials, masticate them into papier-mache, and build fresh cells. They also scoop away the earth from the chamber and enlarge it, so as to fit it for the increasing nest.

By this time the number of worker-wasps has increased so much that a second tier of cells is needed for their energies

to be expended on. Accordingly, they fix a number of papiermache pillars to the mouths of the cells of the first tier, and to them they suspend a second tier of cells. A third, fourth, and fifth tier follow in rapid succession ; and, as the nest is enlarged, so the covering is enlarged in proportion. Sometimes the Common Wasp builds its nest in a hollow tree or in some similar locality ; and it is remarkable that the covering of the nest is, in this case, very different from that which is employed when the insect builds an underground habitation. In the latter case the nest is surrounded with layer after layer of paper, so as to protect the cells in case the sides or any of the earthen chambers should collapse ; but in the former case the covering is quite thin, and scarcely contains a tenth of the material that is needful for the subterranean nest.

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