n97.] 81 



or, one may say, of almost any flowering plants. Their Cuckoos 

 bave much the same habits, only they do not store pollen. It may be 

 worth while to remind collectors that early in the spring no worker 

 Humble Bees are about, so that small specimens looking like workers 

 of terresfris or hortorum will probably prove to be females of Jonellus 

 or so)'oensis, species which are rare with many collectors, probably 

 because they are overlooked. Wasps have much the same habits as 

 Humble Bees, and every one knows that Queen Wasps are amongst the 

 earliest insects on the wing. Even Queen Wasps should be carefully 

 examined, as the rare V. austriaca may easily pass unnoticed. Any 

 wasp that has the eyes touching the mandibles and the tibiae with 

 projecting hairs, may be set down for certain as the rarity. 



Towards the end of April and during May a good many fresh 

 species of Aculeates begin to appear. Of course a great deal depends 

 on the " earliness " or "lateness" of the season as to times of 

 appearance, but in May, if the weather be bright, one will probably 

 find some of the earlier Fossorials, especially amongst genera such as 

 Pemphredon, Diodonfus, Passalcscus, Crabro, &c., which begin to appear 

 now, although they may be found all through the summer. Many of 

 these make their burrows in stems of brambles and other plants, or in 

 dead stumps. They require very careful collecting, as, owing to the 

 general resemblance of the species to each other, it is often impossible 

 to feel certain what species one may be bottling, and it is very 

 annoying on one's return home to find a specimen of a rarity amongst 

 a lot of common species without having the slightest idea where it 

 was taken. I always think it is worth while to examine a specimen 

 of any obscure species which one may notice frequenting a definite 

 locality, at once, as it is quite easy to hold a living specimen in the 

 left hand while one examines it with a lens in the right, and this 

 proceeding often saves the lives of many specimens of common species 

 and enables one to secure rarities which might otherwise pass unnoticed. 

 The rarities to be looked for in the Pemphredon group are P. 

 (Ceratophorus) morio, and P. Wesmaeli. The former has been till lately 

 one of our very rarest Hymenoptera, but it has been taken in the last 

 few years at Blackheath by Mr. Beaumont, and at Bury St. Edmunds 

 by Mr. Tuck. It may be recognised by the short stout tubercle on 

 the face between the eyes. The latter is very like the commoner 

 Shuckardi, but has a larger head and a more strongly and coarsely 

 punctured mesonotum, and in the ? a deeply emarginate clypeus. 

 Most of the species of this genus are fond of basking in the sun 

 on leaves of brambles, or in gardens on currants, gooseberries or 



