6 THE DENIZENS OF AN OLD CHERRY TREE. 



lately emerged from the borings near it. This exceedingly active 

 and predacious insect belongs to a genus whose members chiefly 

 burrow in sand and generally prey on spiders. Mr. Edward 

 Saunders, who kindly identified the Aculeates bred from our 

 cherry stump, referring to this species, says : — 



" Pompiliis spissus out of the stump is very interesting. I 

 wonder if it always inhabits such localities. I can find no actual 

 account of its habits, but always imagined that it nested in banks, 

 sands, etc., as its allies. It, however, lacks the comb of spines on 

 the front tarsi of its female, which are probably for digging pur- 

 poses (as most of the sand species possess them), so possibly it 

 may be a wood frequenter ; but it is quite unlike the other Po?7ipili 

 if it is. P. niger and P. minutiilus are also combless ; possibly 

 their habits are similar." 



Of other beetles we found dead specimens of Calathus ciste- 

 loides and Sinodendron cylindricum, while the living imagines of the 

 following species were taken in April from the cherry bark when 

 cutting open the blocks, viz. : — Cis boleii, C. hispidiis, C. nitidus, 

 Anaspis frontalis, and A. fasciata. 



The next inmates to claim our attention were the nymphs and 

 perfect forms of the solitary black wasps of the genus Pemph7'edo7i, 

 of which two species, P. hignbris (previously mentioned) and 

 P. Shuckardi, appeared in our boxes in the perfect state from 

 April 29th to the middle of May, P. lugubris being the most 

 numerous of any of the denizens of the stump. Its crooked and 

 stained burrows running in all directions, we sometimes met with 

 a long winding boring ending in several short branches, as in 

 Fig. 3, PI. I. In one of these short branch borings will be seen 

 the legless larva ; in another gallery will be found the nymph or 

 [Supal form of P. lugubris (this genus makes no cocoon), while the 

 imago, a female, is represented resting on the wood near. These 

 are all drawn natural size. 



In our examination of the burrows of this species in April, the 

 larval stage was nearly over, as only two of the pale yellow, help- 

 less larvae were found, and these in a few days passed into the 

 nymph stage, which, compared to the larval life, is of short dura- 

 tion. The first imagines to appear were chiefly males, and out of 

 eighty specimens bred the proportion of males to females was ten 



