THE OTTAWA I(ATURALIST. 



Vol. XV. 



OTTAWA, JANUARY, 1902. 



No. ID. 



FAUNA OTTAWAENSIS. 



Hymenoptera — Superfamily II.— Sphegoidea. 



By W. Hague Harrington, F.R.S.C, Ottawa. 



The proceedings of our society have recently made little refer- 

 ence to the local insect fauna, but it seems important that this 

 branch of our natural history should not be altogether neglected. 

 Abundant material exists in our cabinets, but unfortunately records 

 have to be fragmentary, as so many forms are still undetermined 

 or imperfectly classified. Last winder a start was made toward a 

 rearrangement ot my hymenoptera according to the admirable 

 scheme of classification published by Ashmead, but the work has 

 progressed slowly. Under his system the very extensive order of 

 the hymenoptera is divided into ten easily recognized superfamilies 

 as follows :— Apoidea, Sphegoidea, Vespoidea, Formicoidea, Proc- 

 totrypoidea,Cynipoidea, Chalcidoidea, Ichneumonoidea, Siricoidea. 

 and Tenthredinoidea, which are subdivided into ninety-four families 

 and many hundred genera. It would be preferable to commence 

 with the Apoidea and to publish the superfamilies in consecutive 

 order, but this is rendered impossible by the difficulty of determining 

 the numerous bees belonging to such groups as Halictus, Andrena, 

 Osmia and Megachile, and the superfamily Sphegoidea has been 

 selected as a commencement. The species included therein are com- 

 monly known as solitary, or fossorial wasps, because they do not 

 form communities as do some of the Vespoidea and because they 

 usually construct their egg-cells in burrows in the earth or in dead 

 wood. The cells thus formed are stored by the industrious wasps 

 with provisions for their prospective young. This food supply does 

 not consist of pollen and honey, as stored by the bees, but of 



