l6 The Irish Naturalist. January," 



The past summer has been a very cold one, and a ver>^ bad 

 one for studying wasps in consequence, but I have had the luck 

 to chance on a nest containing anstriaca, which I had under 

 observation for a considerable time, and which I hope to 

 describe later on, After I took this nest I saw large numbers 

 oi a^istriaca males, and have captured a good man}-. Last 

 year the first males of this wasp I took were on August yth, 

 and the last on August 25th. This year the earliest were tatken 

 on August nth, and the latest on Sept. 1 ith. They have b^en 

 about in far greater numbers than last year, in fact so nume- 

 rous were they, that I several times caught two with one 

 sweep of my net. 



I have found them, toO; this year in two different parts of my 

 grounds, not being, as they were last year, confined entirely 

 to one part. From this I gather that there have been at least 

 tw^o more nests near, besides the one I took. Last year I 

 caught a good many riija males at the same time as the 

 aiist^iaca.. while this year I have only taken one, and that one 

 varies in coloration considerably from the typical rufa. Last 

 year I took a dozen or more riifa males, which varied from 

 the usual coloration, but as I hope to have more to say 

 about them later on I shall not further describe them at present. 



I think it worth recording, that a nest of V. sylvcstris was 

 found at Rahein^ this year by a brother of mine, in the 

 ground. In describing the nest, which he took and sent to 

 me, he says ; " It was on the edge of a pond about 18 inches 

 from the water — about 6 inches in the bank and 6 inches 

 below the surface of the ground." 



Mr. Saunders, in his book, says of this wasp : "It makes its 

 nests in the branches of trees : but Smith says that he once or 

 twice found it inhabiting an underground nest." Ormerod, in 

 his book on " British Social Wasps/' also says : " This is, 

 according to her markings and habits, a tree-w^sp. But no 

 place comes amiss ; hollow trees, caves, hedge-banks, and bee- 

 hives are all in their turn honoured by her selection." 



It is also interesting, I think, to compare the above table 

 with the statistics published last year by Messrs. Barrington 

 and Moffat, as also with some wasp statistics published 

 by Mr. E- Saunders. This gentleman found V. gcrmanica to 



EtttomologisC s Monthly Magazine (p. 223, Sept., 1902). 



