1917.1 119 



succeeded in sittinc^ down effectively on both my wrists and one knee. 

 However, I secured the nest, in a somewhat dishevelled condition, cap- 

 turing- two more Metoecus in the process, and hore it in triumph to the 

 house, where it was installed in a cardh)oard box. On my retiu-n to 

 London I brougdit the nest with me. 



On arriving home I suspended two combs of this nest in a wooden 

 box and placed it in a warm sheltered spot in the garden with a rotten 

 fence pale near, to provide the wasps with building material. They 

 made themselves at home and covered in the two combs almost entirely 

 with fresh envelopes, and I got out two more MetoecnK, making five in 

 all — two males and three females. There were a few VohtceUa larvae, 

 probably V. peUnceiis, in the nest hole, but I did not get any of these 

 through. 



Wasps were very plentiful that year in the Stroud district, and I 

 was shown four holes from which the badgers (also common there) 

 had dug out and eaten the nests in one night. This suggests that if 

 badgers were allowed to live in all parts of the country, instead of 

 being stupidly exterminated in most, we should hear less of plagues 

 of wasps than we do, for there was absolutely nothing left of the 

 nests but a few bits of the paper of the outer envelopes. 



I found another patch of Pastinaca in an old quarry near Hares- 

 field Beacon, and here again there were plenty of Vespa males, 

 Ichnenmonidae , and other things. 



On one occasion there was a strong breeze, and I was astonished 

 at the pertinacity with which the wasps and other insects clung to 

 the parsnip flowers, although the plants were often blown over to an 

 angle of 45°, and in some cases even 60° from the perpendicular. Yet 

 Syrjjhtis ribesii, which usually, or at least often, flies off at the 

 observer's close approach, so wary is it, did not allow itself to be 

 blown away, and I was able to box it with ease ; evidently it was too 

 busily engaged in hanging on and feeding to notice the approach of 

 real danger. 



In 1915, as shown by the dates, I was about five weeks earlier 

 than usual and met with a different set of insects in consequence. The 

 evening I arrived I caught a solitary Dianthoeria eonspersa on the 

 down behind the house. It was visiting the flowers of bladder campion 

 and was in very good condition ; but although I kept a sharp look- 

 out then and on succeeding evenings no further specimens were seen. 



At one end of this down is a hedge bordering a field of corn or 

 clover and one evening about dusk hearing some large animal rustling 



