Correspondence » 317 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



AN ENTOMOLOGICAL GRAVE-DIGGER. 

 To the Editor of the " Canadian Naturalist." 



SiK, — As I was sitting this morning on the lower step of my 

 veranda, my gaze fixed listlessly, during the noontide heat, upon 

 the gravel- walk before me ; " thinking," I verily believe, ** of 

 nothing," or at most, entertaining a dreamy impression that I 

 was becoming a focus for the concentration of the sun's rays — 

 my eyes were suddenly attracted to an insect whose motions very 

 soon riveted my attention. 



I at once perceived that it belonged to the order Hymenoptera, 

 but even now that I have the specimen in question before me, I 

 am afraid to name its genus : it is, however, 

 similar to the Tenthredo scropkzdaria, if it 

 is not actually that insect. The accompa- 

 nying sketch may enable you to arrive at 

 a decision on this point : it is the natural 

 size, the length being exactly five lines. 



The little creature, when I first caught sight of it, had already 

 commenced, within four feet of the spot on which I was seated, 

 its work of excavation ; for as I looked it disappeared, and short- 

 ly afterward returned to the surface of the ground tail first ; and 

 running backward over a tiny mound it had previously made, de- 

 posited a grain of gravel fully as large as its own head outside the 

 mound, with the evident intention that it should not roll back 

 again into the cave it was in process of forming. This operation 

 was continued with great rapidity ; and ever as it re-entered the 

 orifice I saw minute particles of sand fly upward, impelled pur- 

 posely by its descending feet. 



The care with which the insect distinguished between the larger 

 and the smaller grains was wonderful ; those only whose gravity 

 might have caused them to roll down again, had they been placed 

 below the apex of the mound on the side on which the work was 

 carrying on, were conveyed beyond the mound ; the smaller grains 

 were added to the mound itself without much apparent discrimin- 

 ation. 



After a time the work was evidently completed to the satisfac- 

 tion of the laborer, for it flew away to the grass-edging of a flow- 

 er-border distant about six feet from the cave, and immediately 

 emerged from thence, dragging after it, for it was running back- 



