NOTES ON VARIOUS INSECTS. 



Thalessa lunator (Fabr.). 

 The Lunated Long-sting. 



About twenty examples of this insect, males and females, were 

 taken by me during the month of September, from the dead trunk of 

 an elm left standing on a sidewalk in Albany, after its top had been 

 cut off at a height of ten feet from the ground. The bark had been 

 removed from the tree while it was still living for about one-half its 

 circumference and the wood painted to arrest further deray or injury. 

 Early in September my attention was arrested by a quantity of saw- 

 dust clinging to the painted p rtion of the 

 trunk, where, on examination, it was found to 

 be perforated with hundreds of small round 

 holes of a diameter of about one-tenth of 

 an inch; while a still larger quantity of the 

 dust had fallen down and was covering the- 

 bark at and near the liase. From eight to ten 

 of these holes could be counted, in places, in a y\g. 18. a wood-wasp Pem- 

 square inch of surface. Many of them, judging f h^^^don concolor Say'corig- 

 from their diameter, were the work of tlie wood-wasp, Pemphredon con- 

 color Say, numbers of which were observed upon the trunk, running over 

 it, entering the holes, and emerging from them, during the time above 

 stated. About twenty examples were captured for the State collection. 



I find nothing written of the Tiabits of either of our two species of 

 Pemphrelon {marginat .s Say, the other). Curtis, in his Furm Insects 

 (page 76), says of two English species, Pemphredon unicolor Latr., and 

 P. lugubris (Fabi-.), that they may be seen during the summer months 

 carrying immense quantities of aphides into holes in wood, posts, etc., 

 to feed their 3'^oung upon. 



A single example of Tremex cohunba (Linn.) was taken from the 

 trunk Septeml>er 16th. The "insects'" (which of them could not be 

 definitely stated, but probably "the long-stings,") had been so abund- 

 ant during the month of August that they had attracted the attention 

 of persons living in the vicinity, and small boys, it was reported, had 

 been amusing themselves by catching and killing them. 



The Thalessas were only seen upon the bark. The males were 

 apparently awaiting the emergence of the females from the 

 can be readily known by its antenna^ longer than the body, and quit - 



