1904.] 



41 



for fuel. A piece of tlie wood which had been badly tunnelled by the grubs and 

 the escaping saw-flies was kindly sent me by Mr. Kitlon for exhibition at the 

 Museum.— A. E. Gibbs, Herts County Museum, St. Albans : January Uh, 1904. 



Some Aculeate Hfimenoptera in North Durham in 1903. — Speaking generally, 

 this year has been a poor one for Rymenoptera. The spring, however, opened with 

 great promise, and queen wasps and humble bees were very abundant. Of the 

 J^esprr I took in April and May V. rufa, V. vulc/aris, V. germanica,&x\A V. xylvestris. 

 The other tree wasp, V. norvegica, although usually common, its nests being found 

 in numbers in our fir woods, did not show itself. As if to compensate for this 

 toward the end of June I took two (recorded elsewhere), and saw about half-a-dozen 

 other, V. austriaca. These occurred in a small clearing in the middle of an extensive 

 larch wood amongst the North Durham Hills, decidedly an upland region. A point 

 I consider worthy of notice is, that although I got about two dozen queen wasps in 

 this same limited area, yet all (save these two) were V. vulgaris • not one V. rufa 

 did I get within six miles of the spot. These V. austriaca were flying in and out 

 of hedge bottoms and out of the roots of honeysuckle climbing up dwarf birches. 

 They were much later than the V. vulgaris I got at the same spot. On the wing 

 they are very conspicuous from their flight and lightness of colour, as they are of a 

 very much brighter yellow than the rest of the Vespfe ; further, when flying they 

 seem to be much more slimly built than the others. The last wasp I saw in 

 Durham in 1903 was on July fith, a worker of V. vulgaris; from that date onward 

 I never saw another. 



Of Ihe Bomb! I saw in spring Bombus agrorum, B. venustus, B. hortorum, 

 B. terrestris var. lucorum, B. terrestris var. rirginalis, B. pratornm and B. latreil- 

 lelus var. distinguendus ; these were very common. B. distinquendus was taken in 

 Uie small clearing mentioned above. B. derhamellus and B. lapidarius were not 

 so common here, but three miles south of this T got about a dozen B. lapidarius. 

 In autumn all I saw were myriads of B. agrorum, a few each of all sexes of B. 

 hortorum, B. venustus, B. derhamellns, a few male B. jiraiorum, and one queen 

 B. terrestris. The others were absent. 



Of Psithyrus I saw no spring females, but in July, when B. hortorum came off, 

 males of P. vestalis were not uncommon in the Derwent Valley, and I saw one or 

 two females later ; the other species of the genus were absent from these districts 

 this year. 



I have to record for the first time from Durham, I think, a single specimen of 

 Andrena fulva, which I took in May at the flowers of Lousewort {Pedicularis 

 syloatica) ; I never saw or took it before here, and no Hymenopterist I know has 

 either.— J. W. H. Harrison, 2, Craig Street, Birtley, R. S. O. : Dec. lOth, 1903. 



Hymenoftera {Tenthredinidre and Aculeata) in Dumbartonshire: with some 

 additions to the Clyde list. — Seldom has it been the misfortune of entomologists to 

 experience such a poor year for collecting as that just closed. Until the middle of 

 the month of June the weather was fairly good, but after that time, with the ex- 

 ception of a period in July, rain was very frequent. The spring Hymenoplera were 



D 



