Insects. 529 



to them, independently of the effects of the perforations of 

 the Scolyti. Again, of the fourteen trees perforated by Sco- 

 lyti, although seven show extravasation of sap, the remaining 

 seven do not show it at all. 



" Give a dog an ill name and hang him." I cannot help 

 thinking that the Scolytus is deserving of much more respect 

 than is bespoken for it in the epithet destructor; and I had, in 

 this belief, called it, in my own vocabulary, insons, as early as 

 ill the index to Vol. IV.— J. D. 



The Hornets {Vespa Crdbro, ^Jig, 65.), spoken of above, 

 fed upon the sap with diligence and earnestness. One, that I 



observed more than once, 

 kept its head partly immersed 

 in a crevice for a long time 

 together. The wedge-shaped 

 figure of the lower part of 

 the head causes it to fit a 

 crevice aptly ; and then I he 

 lateral action of the mandi- 

 bles, if these be used in feed- 

 ing upon sap (some of the 

 sap was of a pulpy consist- 

 ence), in such a situation, 

 must be very convenient 

 indeed. Of the flies, eager to share every good, some would 

 gather about any of the hornets to partake of the feast it had 

 found, and, in their eagerness, prove too intrusive; when the 

 hornet would lash them with its antennae to drive them off (and, 

 thought I, this is at least one use of antennae, about the office 

 of which entomologists have never been agreed). When this 

 would not do, the hornet would leave off feeding, and run a 

 few steps at the flies, open-mouthed : the flies scampered away 

 quickly. The hornet's mouth almost frightened me, and well 

 it might the flies. I found, too, that the flies had real reason 

 to be a little fearful ; for I saw two instances of a fly being in 

 the jaws of a hornet. In one, the hornet was alighting, I 

 think, with the fly in its mouth (if not, it captured it on alight- 

 ing) ; and, curving its body round the fly, as if to prevent its 

 escape, and while itself hanging but by a single toe (as one 

 might say), bit off the fly's head, whose body fell to the 

 ground. It may be right here to note, that the heads and 

 bodies of flies were somewhat numerous upon the ground, at 

 the foot of the trunks of the trees ; but I suppose that these, 

 or most of these, were fallen portions of some of the nume- 

 rous dead flies which were sticking over the surface of the 

 bark. The other instance was this : — A hornet flew down 

 Vol. VII. — No. 42. m m 



