54 THE KEPOET OF THE No. 36 



of the wasp ? I think that Prof. W, S. Blatchley, in " Woodland Idyls/' pages 

 206-9, has supplied an answer. He tells that he saw an ichneumon light upon a 

 spider, that a wasp was carrying of, and deposit an ^gg in it. 



Zahriski found S. pradator in the nests of Vespa maculata Linn., and Vespa 

 germanica Pabr., insects of widely different nesting habits. Has it a wider choice 

 of domiciles? It may have. 



The Digger Wasps should be numbered among our insect friends. 



One summer day, a few years ago, I was walking in the beautiful cemetery 

 at St. Joseph de Levis when I came to a bare and unused portion of ground. 

 The soil was light yet not friable. It seemed to be just suitable for the operations 

 of Bembex fasciatus Fab. About a score of these insects were in sight, some of 

 them sinking shafts in the ground; others storing their shafts already completed 

 with Blue-bottle flies. 



It must be told here that a considerable tract of Government land lies near 

 the burial ground which I have spoken of; and that some of the dwellers in the 

 vicinity were guilty of the reprehensible practice of carting their garbage out to 

 this waste laud, and leaving it there uncovered. It was not surprising that 

 31ow-flies were plentiful in the neighborhood, and that Digger Wasps and Carrion 

 Settles Avere plentiful there, too. 



I once saw Ammophila communis Cresson, staggering along with a cater- 

 pillar larger than itself, and then burying it in a hole previously prepared. 



The monarch of our Canadian ichneumons is undoubtedly Thalessa atrafa Fab. 



On the ITtli of June, 1899, the Quebec Branch of the Entomological Society, 

 which was then in a flourishing condition, held a field day in the grounds of Mr. 

 Harper Wade, of JSTew Liverpool, Quebec. Mr. Wade's house is on a bluff over- 

 looking the St. Lawrence. Behind it is an extensive lawn bordered by ornamental 

 trees and shrubs. At the time of our visit a huge maple log had been sawn 

 into blocks of stove length, ready for the splitting; but the owner had placed 

 them here and there, under the trees, for rustic seats. On approaching one of 

 these I found several female specimens of atrata in the act of depositing their eggs, 

 while others of the species were darting about in the vicinity. Each block had 

 its visitors of the kind attracted by the larvae of Tremex columha Linn., which 

 Were tunneling in the wood. But how were the ichneumons attracted? Was it 

 by some subtile emanation from their victims? Who can say? 



There are trees on each side of the street on which I live. A Eed Maple 

 (Acer ruhimni) is growing a few yards from my door. On the 16th of June, 

 1912, looking from the portico over this door, I saw an assembly of ten or a 

 d6^6ti' males of Thalessa lunaior Fabr. The insects were clustered on a spot where 

 a limb of the tree had been lopt some years before. 



' ' There was apparently much agitation amongst them. Before night two fe- 

 ina:les made their appearance from the wood; and then the males dwindled in 

 number. Only the two females remained next day. 



What attracted the male insects to the spot where the females were about 

 to show themselves? Was it scent, or sound, or some influence we know not of? 



While speaking of the Longtails let me say that some years ago, I took on 

 the Heights of Levis a Thalessa of great rarity. It is about the size, and of 

 the same rich sienna-colour as Thalessa lunator Fabr., but very different in its 

 markings. Instead of the lunettes which are seen on the abdomen of lunator, 

 there are, on each side of the 3rd, 4th and 5th abdominal segments of the insect 

 I am speaking of, a bright crome-yellow circle upon a black fascia which passes 

 round the segment. I presume that this insect is Thalessa norfoni Cresson. 



