1898.] . 105 



WASP AND BEE HUNTING. 



Hints on CoIIectlniT Aculeate Hymenoptera. Bj Edward 

 Saunders, F.L.S. Loudon : Gurney and Jackson. (Reprinted 

 from the Entomologists'' Mojithly Magazine, 1897.) 



This useful little pamphlet should prove a great help to collectors and 

 students of the Aculeata, the most interesting group in a fascinating but 

 neglected Order. Not less may be expected from a writer recognised as 

 the foremost British authority on the subject. 



The "Hints" are intended almost solely as a guide to collectors, 

 whose work must always precede that of students properly so-called, 

 although both terms ought in practice to be synonymous. Mr. Saunders' 

 experience as a collector has been wholly confined to a portion of 

 England, and in certain respects the points he notes can hardly be held 

 applicable to this island without some qualification. Thus on page i we 

 find the statement: — "For collecting purposes the morning hours and 

 mid-day in springare by far the best ; in hot summer the morning and 

 later afternoon {J.e., after 3 p.m.). The hours from 12 to 3 in very hot 

 weather I have generally found most unproductive." Irish experiences 

 do not entirely sustain these views. We have always found that nothing 

 at all is to be taken in early morning in spring, and that the portion of 

 the day between 12 and 3 in hot weather, especially in the sunny 

 intervals of thunder-showers, yields the best results. 



Every collector will endorse the author's remarks on the use of 

 cyanide, but it would have been well to add that the chief value of the 

 laurel-bottle is to keep specimens relaxed and in a fit state for setting, 

 after they have been killed by chlorofoim or cyanide, and before they 

 have had time to stiffen in the poison-bottle. 



Mr. Saunders rightly discounts the usefulness of the ordinary hymen* 

 opterist's net in the capture of the Pompilida. We have always found a 

 small net of strong muslin with a 5-inch ring most handy for these. 



On page 10 we read : — " The species oi Mimesa .... are fond of flying 

 round shrubs and settling on leaves after the manner of Pemphredon, but 

 they also occur on flowers." Mimesa unicolor is most abundant in July on 

 the sand-dunes at Laytown, Co. Meath, basking in the sunshine on bare 

 sandy patches. 



In his notes on the genus Andrena (p. 15) the author states ; — " Senecio 



J'acobda (Ragwort) attracts A, nigriceps and tridentata A. denticulata 



generally occurring on thistles." So far as we have collected we have 

 never taken A. denticulata^ a common insect in the south of Ireland, upon 

 any plant except Ragwort- 



A point which a hymenopterist cannot fail to note in this country is 

 the rarity of the occurrence of Nomada with the second Andrena broods, 

 and its uon'occurrence with the very early members of that genus. 



