140 E June - 



HYMENOPTERA-ACULEATA OF JERSEY, GUERNSEY, ALDERNEY, 

 AND ST. BR1AC (BRITTANY). 



BY EDWABD SAUNDERS, F.L.S. 



The Hymenoptcm-Aculeata of Jersey have not apparently 

 received much attention from Entomologists, the only lists of 

 species taken in the Island being one in Ansted's " Channel Islands," 

 in which 27 species are recorded, and another given by Mr. W. A. 

 Luff, at the end of his "Aculeate Hymenoptera of Guernsey," wherein 

 the number is raised to 45. Mr. Luff informs me that he has omitted 

 three of Ansted's records, Beinbex rostrata, Vespa germanica, and 

 Coelioxys rufocaudata (= brevis of the following list), so that the 

 number recorded should be 48. During a stay in Jersey last 

 summer of three weeks at St. Aubin's, from the 5th to the 24th of 

 July, I did what I could to sample the Hymenoptera of the Island. The 

 rocky nature of the coast is not, of course, favourable to Aculeata, 

 but there are in places areas of overlying sand dunes, &c, which are 

 quite a paradise for the fossorial members of the order. Nearly all 

 the best things were found in these localities ; the lanes, &c, only 

 produced a few species of Halictus, Andrena, Grabro, &c, most of 

 which also occurred on the sandy tracts. I had no opportunity of 

 working the North of the Island, but on the one occasion when I 

 visited Plemont and Greve le Lee nothing occurred which I had not 

 seen in the South, and the species were comparatively few in number. 

 So far as 1 could ascertain, St. Ouen's Bay and its surroundings is the 

 best locality of all, and that in which rarities are most likely to occur; 

 here there is a fine sandy shore, and the sand runs inland for about 

 three miles to Don Bridge, another excellent and easily accessible 

 locality, but lacking the maritime species found in the Bay. No doubt 

 alJ the intervening sandy tract is also good, but it is not so easily 

 reached, and part of it is used as a rifle range, and consequently red 

 flags warn the collector off a very large area of good ground. The 

 little sandy tract just behind, and to the west of Bel lioyal Station, 

 between St. Aubin's and St. Heliers, is another productive spot, but it 

 is small, and several of the St. Ouen's Bay and Don Bridge species 

 did not occur there. I found the local Allium sphcerocephalum a very 

 attractive plant, and one on which it was very difficult to see its 

 visitors, even large species like Sphex or Fhilanthus were often very 

 easily overlooked, although of quite a different colour to the purple-red 

 head of the onion. It was of course impossible in three weeks to work 

 auy one of these localities thoroughly. My collecting was practically 



