NOTES, ETC. /O 



During the past season fossorial insects were of rare occur- 

 rence ; I visited localities in Kent, Suffolk and Surrey, where 

 some species usually abound, and where in 1858, in the 

 months of August and September, I certainly observed one 

 hundred individuals where I found a single example in 1861. 

 This observation will apply to the whole fossorial tribe, of 

 which I am not aware of a sohtary species of any rarity 

 having been captured. 



During the entire season of 1860 I only saw three wasps, 

 although I visited many localities where they are usually 

 abundant ; from their great scarcity during that year it 

 might have been reasonably inferred, that nearly the whole 

 tribe has perished in consequence of the unusual degree of 

 cold and rain ; such however does not prove to have been the 

 case. I have received a communication from my friend Mr. 

 Henry Doubleday on this subject, which I will give entire : 

 he says, '' last year I did not see a single wasp, and I am not 

 aware that one was seen by any person in this neighbour- 

 hood ; but at the present time, August 14th, they are more 

 numerous than they have been for years ; we have them by 

 thousands, they are destroying all the early plums. I have 

 no doubt they are the produce of females of 1859, which 

 remained in a torpid state through last year/' In this opinion 

 I quite agree, no other reasonable mode of accounting for 

 the general abundance of these insects appears to me to 

 present itself. 



Mr. Curtis informed me that at Wangford, in Suffolk, 

 wasps swarmed in incredible numbers, proving a most in- 

 tolerable nuisance in houses, whilst their depredations in the 

 shops of fruiterers and grocers became a serious loss to 

 them ; even butchers complained of the loss and damage 

 done to their meat, so great and unusual were their numbers. 

 At Halesworth, in Suffolk, wasps were extremely numerous, 



