1806.] 109 



bulbs, it was not a single one, as you thought most probable." I am anxious to find 

 out if this insect has previously been recorded as being injurious to bulbs, and shall 

 be very much obliged to any one who will give me information on this point. — • 

 G. S. Saunders, 20, Dent's Road, Wandsworth Common, S.W. : April iith, 1896. 



Piini in a hornets' nest. — About fifteen months ago I received from my friend 

 Mr. W. H. Tuck a good sized hornets' nest [^Vespa crabro) which he had taken 

 from a hollow tree. It consisted of five combs of different sizes, the largest about 

 8 inches by 6. When it came to hand I examined it carefully, and gave it a good 

 shaking, to dislodge any insects or other inhabitants that it might contain. Besides 

 a few dead things, there fell out a small family of some species of pseudo-scorpions, 

 and a fine J Ptinusfur, all of which were alive and active. In the roofs of the 

 combs I noticed several circular holes like those of the Teredilia, and these I 

 attributed to other specimens of the Ptitius, which I supposed had previously escaped. 

 I did my utmost in the way of shaking to dislodge any further specimens there 

 might be, but without success ; and not wishing to damage the nest, I forbore to 

 break up the outer layer of the roof so as to examine what was beneath it, and came 

 to the conclusion, an erroneous one, as the sequel showed, that no other insects were 

 present. 



After some weeks, during which no other beetles emerged, I put the nest in my 

 cabinet, and there it remained undistui'bed until about a month ago, when I noticed 

 a peculiar appearance about it. Closer examination showed that the walls of the 

 cells had in many places been more or less eaten away, and some were almost entirely 

 destroyed. Casting about as to what could have done the damage, I bethought me 

 of the P^jMMs, and instituting a careful search throughout the cabinet (a rather large 

 one), I discovered the dead bodies of no less than 153 specimens of Ptinusfur, ^ 

 and $ , together with two living examples of Corynetes caruleits. The roofs of the 

 combs now showed on their outer or upper surface large numbers of the familiar 

 circular holes, between 80 and 90 being counted in the largest comb. Fi'om these, 

 on shaking, there fell out quantities of black dust, like gunpowder. When examined 

 under the microscope, this was found f o consist of fragments of the exo-skeleton of 

 insects mixed with fraes, apparently the relics of the larval life of the hornets. 

 This powder forms a sort of layer closely compacted just beneath the roof of the 

 comb, and separated from the cells themselves by thin partitions. In was in this 

 layer apparently that the beetles had lived. Although there were plenty of other 

 objects in the cabinet such as Ptini usually delight in, these insects had not attacked 

 them, but had confined their depredations to the hornets' nest, though some of them 

 had wandered to the remotest corners of the cabinet. How long the beetles had 

 been out I do not know, but they must have been present in the nest when I received 

 it, perhaps in the larval condition. The Corynetes had evidently emerged later than 

 the Ptini ; and I see that in Fowler's Coleoptera this species is said to be sometimes 

 parasitic on A.nobium ; hence it may have been parasitic on Ptini. I should be glad 

 to know whether it is usual for Ptini to be met with in large nests of Vespidce, and 

 if 80, whether they are to be found during the lifetime of the wasps, or whether 

 they do not attack nests till these are vacated by their rightful owners. — E. A. 

 BuTLEK, 39, Ashley Road, Crouch Hill : April 2nd, 1896. 



