200 The I?ish Naturalist, October, 



examination, about Jul}' 2nd; whereas two previous lots, reach- 

 ing the large total of 184 wasps, had contained none of that 

 species. These figures tend to show that the last fortnight of 

 June is the best time for collectors to look out for this very 

 interesting Irish wasp. 



There is a remarkable contrast between the total numbers 

 of wasps killed in the two consecutive springs of 1898 and 

 1899, In the former year only 51 were obtained ; in the latter 

 235. The average number per year is 144. It is possible that 

 the wetness of the spring of 1898 (when April and May registered 

 9^ inches of rain at Fassaroe) may account for the scarcity in 

 that year. The same period in 1894 had a still heavier rainfall, 

 nearly to inches ; but in that season also the number of queen 

 wasps killed (80) was considerably under the average. In the 

 dry spring of 1893 tne total figure is only 62 ; but this proves 

 nothing, as in that year few were looked for after the begin- 

 ning of May. 



The majority of the wasps were in most years killed on 

 young shoots of hawthorn, and chiefly towards evening. On 

 one day in early June, in 1899, the gardener killed as many as 

 74 on the raspberry canes ; and it would appear from the 

 figures corresponding to this period in the table, that Vespa 

 vulgcuis and V. tufa were probably the species to which most 

 of these belonged. 



Mr. Edward Saunders says in letter, 1897 : — 



"I do not know of any character which distinguishes the nests of 

 " sylvestris and norvegica apart ;but then I have, unfortunately, few oppor- 

 " tunities of seeing nests. 



" Please look for the $ of V. austi-iaca {arborca) as the autumn comes 

 "on, as that has only once been recorded from Britain. It may be known 

 " like the p by having no cheeks between the eyes and mandibles, and 

 " having black-haired tibiae. Sylvestris, &c, have black-haired tibiae, but 

 "then they have long cheeks. I should have expected, on account of 

 " the short cheeks, that austriaca would have associated with vulgaris or 

 "germanuttj or probably rufa, which last it special]}- resembles. 

 " Austriaca? like the p Fsit/iyri, probably hibernates in an impregnated 

 "state, and comes out with the other Wasps. It looks as if it lives at 

 " large late in the season, when the queens of other species are attending 

 '•' to their communities." 



1 This was written before Mr. Robson's discovery placed beyond all 

 doubt the inquiline habit of austriaca in the nests of rufa, and before Mr. 

 Cuthbert obtained the first Irish specimen of the male. 



