^mti0imm^fye^K6 535 



are df an orange colour. (Id., vol. iii. p. 99.) In Insect Miscel- 

 lanies, p. 8., it is called the catchweed beetle. For other 

 particulars respecting it, Marsham's Coleoptera, p. 169., and 

 Donovan's Insects, vol. viii. plate 276., may be consulted. — 

 Edward Wilson, jnn., M.A. F.LS. Chapel Allerton, Sept. 9. 

 1833i>moto io arfood 



r Hymenopterous Insects. — Two Instances of Jinding a 

 Nest and Individual of the Wasp Yespa britannica inside a 

 Beehive; accompanied by the Death of the Bees in one of the 

 Instances. — At the residence of Thomas Hewlett, Esq., at 

 Harrow, bees are kept, and Mr. Hewlett is in the habit of 

 watching their motions and operations. In the spring of 

 1831, Mr. Hewlett observed the bees of one of the hives, 

 which was stationed in a south-eastern aspect, gradually to 

 decline in their usual activity, and after a few days to wholly 

 cease their operations; although, a week or two previous, they 

 had been in full vigour. Underneath this hive lay strewed 

 several dead bees, in apiarian phrase " dead men," and Mr. 

 Hewlett, imagining that they had died from starvation, an 

 event not unusual in the spring, was about to lift up the hive, 

 when a large wasp flew forth.* He, in consequence, desisted 

 from lifting up the hive just then, that the marauding wasp 

 might be watched back. It shortly returned, and re-entered 

 the hive, and was now guarded until it again issued forth, 

 when it was slain on its exit, On raising the hive, Mr. Hew- 

 lett discovered a beautiful globe-shaped nest depending from 

 the honeycomb by a small stem, with three larvae or grubs 

 in the bottom of it. The wooden board on which the hive 

 stood was covered with dead bees, and many dead ones were 

 adhering to various parts of the comb, in which there was 

 plenty of honey for the subsistence of the colony. The wasp 

 was, in this case, not preserved ; but the wasp's nest, with a 

 portion of the honeycomb from which it depended, and the dead 



'io ari-riqg ni madl gniaiamrai noqn tad ; Im neibnl 1o inoloo 



* The hornet, or some species of wasp, would seem to have been a 

 powerful enemy to the domestic bee even in Virgil s time, on the assump- 

 tion that his " crabro" is, if not the Fespa Crabro of modern naturalists 

 (we have, however, never heard this doubted), at least some species of 

 Fespa, or wasp. His "crabro" seems to have been the most formidable 

 of the insect enemies of bees : -77j 9n j gjoagni "k> sonsteb lo amrarn 



Nam saepe favos ignotus adedit 

 Stellio, et lucifugis congesta cubilia blattis : ' ... 



Immunisque sedSns aliena ad pabula fucus, ' ' 



Aut asper crabro imparibus se immiscuit armis; 

 Aut durum tineas genus : aut invisa Minervae 

 •onilmil *Jn foribus laxos suspendit aranea casses." a l: ^ i j + * 



Georg. iv. 242-247. 

 -qua or> aifoidw ^d ban #*>&% doirfw no ViilSaTTo rtcinfq 



i338m gitfj to 8^9 9dT (.ISfc .q ? ^\) .yiivBi^ JamBgelfegJi hoq 



