+ 
ore , 
248 Rev. Mr. KiRBY's Olfervations upon Infects that prey upon Timber, 
Coffus is known to attain its great fize by feeding upon the willow, 
and other kinds of wood when in a decaying ftate. The fame tree - 
affords nourithment, as we learn from Mr. Lewin (a/, to the Sphinx 
crabroniformis; as does the poplar to the Sphinx apiformis (b); and 
vefpiforms. The infeéts of the Hymenoptera clafs bring on the 
decay of ligneous fubftances i in various ways. The nefts and cells 
of many of the genuine Ve/pe are made of a kind of paper formed 
of the filaments of wood. I have often been highly amufed by 
feeing the common wafp, which, though a mifchievous, is at the 
fame time a very ingenious animal, employed in fcraping gate-pofts : 
with her ftrong maxille, to colleét materials for this purpofe; a 
fight which Reaumur informs us it was long before he could 
enjoy (c). The Hornet frequently perforates hollow trunks, to build 
her paper metropolis in a fheltered fituation (7). The Leaf-cutter 
bees, of which there are feveral fpecies all confounded under the 
common name of A. centuncularis, in order to place their centunculi (e) 
of curious conftru&ion, in perfe&t fecurity, make their way into the 
body of various trees. One fpecies fele&s the willow for this pur- 
pofe (f), another the oak(g), or the- elm indifferently. prs 
(a) Linn. Tranf. Vol. iii. p. 2. / ' (5) Ibid, p. 1. 
(c) Reaum. Tom. vi. Mem. vi. p. 180, 181... 
(d) ibid. Mem. vii. p. 217. Iam informed by my friend Sir Thomas Cullum, whofe 
| fpirit and accuracy of obfervation throw light upon every branch of Natural Hiftory, 
that in the year 1785, in Mr. Porte's gardens at Ham near Dovedale,the hornets deftroyed 
a great number of the young oaks by making their way into their heart, and there 
building their nefts, : 
(*) Ibid. Mem. iv. Tab. 9. E 8—181:. Tab. 10. Reaumur's fpecies makes its neft 
under ground ; but Geoffroy's (Hif. ab. des Inf. Tom. ii. p. 410. n. 5.) and our. or 
ones make theirs in the trunke of trees. 
(f) Rai Hifl. Inf. p. 245. Sir E. King, in Philof. Tranf. abridged by Lowthorp, ; 
Vol. ii. p.773. Willoughby in Do. p. 373, 774. Dr- Martin Lifter in Do. 774. 
(qp) Apis centuncularis, Donovan Brit, Inf. Vol. iv. Tab. 120. 
a EA 
