To6 May, 



SOME PROBLEMS OF IRISH ENTOMOLOGY. 



BY H. K. GORR CUTHBKRT. 



I HAVE used the word "Irish "in the heading of this paper, 

 not because the subjects discussed have any special applica- 

 tion to Ireland, but because I think we have a fair number of 

 Irish naturalists whose attention I would like to direct to such 

 things, as a help towards their solution. 



Notwithstanding all that has been done by competent 

 obser^^ers in recent years, there is still a large field for inquiry 

 in insect econoni}^ notably in the mutual relations of different 

 species in the same or different groups. I may instance the 

 researches in which I was engaged some years ago in order 

 to establish the true position of the remarkable wasp Vespa 

 mcstriaca. Up to last summer it seemed to be a fair conclusion 

 that this wasp was an inqiiiline, or messmate, in the nests of 

 Vespa rufa. Last August, however, Mr. Pack Beresford's 

 discovery of the males of aiistriaca in large numbers at one 

 spot in County Carlow lead us to assume the view that the 

 insect is nothing more than a variety of rufa ; and a careful 

 comparison of the male characters (special sex organs) of 

 anstriaca with those of the tj^pical 7-2ifa is all we now need to 

 clear up this point. I hope Mr. Beresford maj^ be able to do 

 this for us next summer. 



In this country none of our social wasps' nests appear to 

 have been ever sj^stematically examined for other than their 

 lawful inmates. The curious beetle Rhipiphorus {Mefcec7is) 

 paradoxus is found in most parts of England and the Continent 

 living in the nests of Vespa imlgaris and V. rufa. An Irish 

 example of this beetle has never been recorded, but there is 

 no reason whj^ it may not occur here, in the southern counties 

 at least. 



There are some other branches of this class of inquiry to 

 which I would invite our entomologists' attention. The nests 

 of the Heteroptera(Ants) might be examined wherever found 

 for the very curious and interesting beetles of certain families 

 {AteineleSy Ciaviger, &c.) known to be parasitic on certain 

 genera. Also, some search might be made for the truly 

 inquiline ants ; for instance, Formicoxemis and Stenainma^ 



