34 HYMENOPTERA. 



highly desirable that the results should be recorded in an 

 Entomological Annual ? 



There are, undoubtedly, few living Entomologists who have 

 experienced a season equally unfavourable for their pursuits, 

 and, for my own part, I have no recollection of anything even 

 approaching its parallel. Under these circumstances, I ap- 

 plied to an old and valued Entomological correspondent, 

 Colonel Newman ; the following is an extract from his 

 reply — "The year 1816 was even worse than the present; 

 May was excessively cold and dry, with frosts throughout : 

 it was succeeded by four months of almost continued rain, 

 which came from all points of the conl^ass; the temperature 

 was full five degrees lower on the average than that of the 

 present season ; the Bomhi were nearly all destroyed, and 

 how any remained to perpetuate the race I could not then 

 conceive." 



Of the social species of Symeiioipteray those belonging to 

 the genera Bo'mhus and Vespa, so great a scarcity has cer- 

 tainly never occurred, in my own experience, as during the 

 past season ; of these insects, which usually abound during 

 the autumnal months, very few have been observed; even 

 the wasps, which generally force themselves upon our notice, 

 I may almost say, have not been seen at all. Dr. Bree, in 

 a communication to the " Weekly Intelligencer," dated Sep- 

 tember 15th, says, "up to this date — not a single wasp;" 

 up to the same period I had only seen a single female in the 

 month of May, and one worker about the end of August ; 

 subsequently I saw a second worker at Wey bridge on the 

 4th of October, a period when these insects are generally 

 seen in great numbers ; these are all the wasps that I have 

 seen, and that during a season when I was unusually anxious 

 to obtain some nests of these insects. 



Of some species of humble bees, I did not observe a single 



