THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



THE HABITS OF A GROUND-HORNET. 



BY WM, T. DAVIS, TOMPKINSVILLE, STATEN ISLAND, N. Y. 



Stizus speciostis is the largest native ground-hornet, and its formid- 

 able appearance and great activity generally secure it undisputed posses- 

 sion of the square rod where it happens to alight. It is from an inch 

 to an inch and one-half in length ; the head and thorax are brown, and 

 the abdomen is black with six irregular yellow blotches. These markings 

 are discernible as it flies swiftly about its business, and give it a particu- 

 larly tiger-like appearance. It seems to be afraid of nothing, and if 

 you walk near its burrow it flies with a menacing buzz in circles about 

 you, and its brown, black and yellow body gleams in the sunlight. 



In constructing its burrows, it usually selects a country roadside or a 

 dry, barren hill, where a freedom from roots makes digging less laborious. 



On the hill back of Richmond village, on Staten Island, I have seen 

 them carrying heavy harvest-flies to these burrows, several of which are 

 dug there nearly every summer. The task of carrying so great a burden 

 as a Cicada is a particularly laborious one, and they do not fly very fast 

 when thus heavily laden. Sometimes they drag the harvest-flies a 

 distance along the ground, and sometimes they resort to an ingenious 

 method to finally get them to their burrows. 



In August, 1889, I observed a Stizus carrying a Cicada, and flying 

 slowly up a hillside. It lit at the base of a black birch on the hill-top, 

 and dragged the " harvest-fly, holding the smooth dorsal surface to the 

 bark, to the topmost branches, finally disappearing among the leaves. I 

 did not see it leave the tree, for I was unable to command a view on all 

 sides at the same time, and then there was a neighboring birch whose 

 branches interlocked with the one where the hornet was. I satisfied 

 myself that it did leave, by climbing up and violently shaking the 

 branches and tree top. Stizus employs this method of transporting the 

 heavy Cicada ; it climbs the tree with the insect, and then flies from the 

 branches, the excessive weight gradually bringing it to the ground again, 

 but nearer to its burrow. 



Professor Morse, in his annual address before the American Association 

 in 1887, notices the following: — "Dr. Thomas Meehan describes a 

 hornet that was gifted with great intelligence. He saw this insect 

 struggling with a large locust in unsuccessful attemps to fly away with it. 

 After several fruitless efforts to fly up from the ground with his victim, he 



