132 The Irish Naturalist. Nov.-Dec, 



IRISH HYMENOPTERA ACULEATA IN 1919. 



BY REV. W. F. JOHNSON, M.A., F.E.S. 



I DID not capture very many Aculeata this year partly 

 owing to illness and partly owing to the bad weather in 

 June. 



I took six species of Nomada at Poyntzpass in May, 

 some in my flower garden and others on the road between 

 my house and Poyntzpass, which I denote by the term 

 " hill." I did not observe any Andrenae in my garden, 

 but A. albicans and A. trinnnerana were nesting in the 

 bank on the roadside but not as far as I could see (for the 

 bank is overgrown with herbage of various kinds) in any 

 great numbers, so I must assume that it was these two 

 species that Nomada was parasitizing. 



June I spent in Donegal with very poor results owing 

 to the cold and wet weather. 



Wasps were not much in evidence till the latter part 

 of August, when they became numerous, and have continued 

 on the wing till November. I w^ent to look at a wasps' 

 nest in one of my fields on November 4, and they were 

 as active as in Juljs and that in spite of quite a sharp 

 frost on the night of November i. 



I met with one species I had not noticed here before, 

 viz., Vespa germanica F. There must have been a strong 

 nest of them somewhere near for the workers came into 

 the house very freely in September and it was thus my 

 attention was drawn to them ; subsequently I captured 

 females and males. This species is very like V. vulgaris 

 in appearance and habits, so it is quite easy to confuse the 

 two species, which I suspect I have done in the past. I 

 have now taken all our native wasps here except V. austriaca 

 Panz. 



All the Portnoo specimens were taken in June and the 

 Poyntzpass Nomada in May. The term " shore " at Portnoo 

 refers to the path leading from the harbour towards 

 Dunmore Head. 



