im.i 189 



JTrJIENOPTERA, &c., NOTICED IN THE NEiaHBOURHOOD OP 



JERUSALEM. 



by a. h. swinton, f.e.s. 

 Tekebeantia. 



Chrysis pelopceicida, Beys. — On May 19tli I saw it running inquisitively over 

 a sunny garden wall in the manner of the English ruby-tail. I am indebted to the 

 Rev. F. D. Morice for the determination of this species. 



Mr. E. Saunders has kindly identified the following Aculeates : — 

 Heterogtna. 



Dort/lus Juvenculus, Shuck. — -Flew to the evening lamp at the commencement 

 of June. 



Camponottts maculatus and Cremastoga/tter inermis. — Wandering about the 

 garden. 



Myrmecocystus viaticus. — Running over the garden pathways in May with its 

 abdomen elevated (scorpion-like) in the air. 



Aphcsnogaster barbara, Linn., " Solomon's Ant." — In the dry summer weather 

 when the vines and orchard trees freshened by the damp sea breeze and the grass is 

 scorched by the sun, it extends its long processional strings to the crevices in the 

 marly baked soil where it lies waste, carrying along with it the glumes of grasses and 

 seeds of medick, which in process of time are erected into chaffy heaps. Despite the 

 appearance of harvest home and the threshing floor, it is concluded by Tristram 

 (Helps to Bible Study) that this material has served for nest building and not for 

 food (Moggridge, " Ants and Trapdoor Spiders," 1874). At Jaffa, in April, I noticed 

 the ants digging a hole for their nest, some were bringing up pellets of sand and 

 piling them into a heap ; others were carrying down medick seeds. As regards the 

 differentiation of the two Mediterranean seed-storing species, barbara, Linn., and 

 structor, Ltr., Mr. Saunders says that structor is usually smaller, duller, more hairy^ 

 and less brightly coloured. The males and females of this genus are considerably 

 larger than the workers. 



FOSSORES. 



Pompilus brunneus, Klug. — A conspicuous insect on the Hill of Evil Council at 

 the end of June. It settles on the seedy flower heads, and on seizure one or both 

 sexes emit a rancid odour similar to that of Pimpla instigator and Helwigia elegans, 

 and sting sharply. Wing expanse, 2 inches ; a small male, 1-2 inches. 



Sceliphron {PelopcBus) spirifex, Linn. — In July. I formerly noticed this insect 

 plentiful near Turin in Italy. 



DiPLOPTERA. 



Vesper orientalis, Linn. — Settled on the vine leaves during the summer in 

 company with a fly, Laphria dizonus, Lw., which in the glare of the sunlight it 

 closely resembled. In August it had made a nest in the joints of the stone wall. 



Eumenes esuriens, Fab., 8/7. — Probably came to light, as I have another speci- 

 men from Fort Kangra, \nd.\B. — Eumenes ?, 23/5. 



Polistes gallica, Linn. — I found its papery, stalked nest, in a ravine in the 

 Wilderness of Judaea the last day of June, the perfect insects were emerging from 

 their cells on July 14th. 



