70 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



these should be so arranged that they can constantly be seen even 

 if they do deteriorate from exposure to light. 



Mr. Barber stated that Mr. Warner has been making some 

 insect groups for the National Museum exhibit at the St. Louis 

 Exposition. One of these groups shows a nest of the common 

 yellow jacket ( Vespa germanica ). The nest for this group was 

 dug out by Mr. Warner and himself at PJummer's Island, Mary 

 land, about the middle of last October. Mr. Warner brought it 

 to the Museum and while working on it noticed a large number 

 of peculiar small white scales attached to the outside of the nest, 

 and called the attention of several persons to them. The opin 

 ions vouchsafed as to what they might be were so much at vari 

 ance as to be amusing the cocoon of some Microlepidopteron, 

 a scale from some plant or grass seed, the anther of some flower, 

 the egg of some coleopterous, dipterous or hymenopterous para 

 site, etc., etc. Finally, Mr. Banks called his attention to some 

 published notes* bearing on this subject. In February, 1861, 

 Mr. Walker exhibited before the Entomological Society of 

 London " some very small white pupa cases that were found 

 attached to wasps' nests. These pupae are finely striated and 

 their size is so very minute that they might have been mistaken 

 for eggs if Mr. Smith had not discovered the skin of a larva 

 inside." Mr. Walker showed also some larvae taken feeding on 

 the refuse of hornets' nests which Mr. Westwood considered to 

 belong to the dipterous family Anthomyiidae. Mr. Westwood 

 stated at a subsequent meeting that the " cocoons" before men 

 tioned were eggs of a Syrphus fly (genus Volucella) , well known 

 to live in wasps' nests. Still later he exhibited eggs, pupae and 

 adults of Vohicella pelluciens Linnaeus from nests of the com 

 mon wasp. Mr. Barber stated that in Europe several species of 

 Volucella are known to lay their eggs on wasps' nests and to 

 live, in the larval state, as scavengers in the nests, feeding on 

 dead larvae and pupae and refuse from the wasps. He does not 

 know whether the eggs found by Mr. Warner are those of Vo 

 lucella or not, but believes that they are. He thinks there are 

 no published notes on the occurrence of VoluceJla in wasps' 

 nests in America. Mr. Hubbard, however, found another species 



* Proc. Ent. Soc. London, 1861, p. 23; 1862, p. 77; 1865, p. 65. 



