462 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec. 



woods, near Quebec. It is the work of a solitary hymenopter, 

 probably belonging to the European family Eumenidje, but 

 whether the Canadian insect is the same as 6, fig. 87, vol. ii, of 

 Westwood's Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects, 

 remains to be determined. The following extract from the above 

 book will suffice to throw some light on this insect architecture : 



" Geoffroy (Hist. Ins. Paris, torn, ii, p. 378, pi. 16, fig. 2) has 

 described a species of Eumenes ( V. coarctata Linn.) which differs 

 somewhat in its habits from the rest of this family. This species 

 constructs upon the stems of plants, especially heath, small spherical 

 nests formed of fine earth. At first a hole is left at the top, 

 through which the parent fills the cell with honey, undergoes the 

 metamorphosis, and makes its escape through a hole which it forms 

 in the side of the cell which contains but a single insect." 



Westwood's illustration (7, fig. 87) and the above description 

 corresponds with the Canadian architecture ; but, as Mr. Cresson, 

 of Philadelphia, does not include V. coarctata in his list of North 

 America Eumenid^e in Proceed. Ent. Soc. Philad., vol. i, p. 327, 

 I infer that the insect and its architecture have not been hereto- 

 fore described as occurring on this side of the Atlantic. I found 

 at Toronto a similar specimen of the work of a solitary wasp, but 

 failed to obtain the insect from it, and I have been equally unfor- 

 tunate with the one found at Quebec. The insect, not making its 

 appearance up to the middle of June, I made a hole in the side of 

 the nest, with a sharp-pointed instrument, which wounded and 

 destroyed the larva. The inside of the nest is lined with a strong 

 silky substance. Should I hereafter obtain the builder of this 

 form of insect architecture, and recognize it as identical with the one 

 mentioned by Westwood, it will not only sustain the supposition that 

 at one time a land connection existed between Europe and Ame- 

 rica, but will also be an additional species in evidence of Mr. B. 

 D.Walsh's argument (Proceed. Ent. Soc. Philad., vol. iii, p. 213) 

 against statements of some American naturalists that separate 

 insect creations have occurred on this continent. 



I found another beautiful specimen of fig. 1, on the 25th July, 

 attached to a fence on the St. Louis Road, not half a mile from 

 the locality where the figured specimen was discovered. The 

 structure stood out from the fence — indeed, I would have passed 

 it, had not the button-form on the top attracted my notice. Its 

 foundation is different from the figured one ; instead of being 

 spherical, the form is dome-shaped, the fence having been the base 



