54 HYMENOPTERA. 



opinion, more destructive to these insects. Beneath many 

 of the stones I discovered females,— frequently three or four 

 beneath a single stone,— apparently laid up for the winter, all 

 being in a semi-torpid condition. The communities of wasps 

 at this time were evidently gradually breaking up, the ma- 

 jority both of males and females having left the nests ; the 

 workers, in most of the nests, were occupied in extracting the 

 remaining grubs from the cells, and conveying them out of 

 the nest to a considerable distance, where they left them to 

 perish ; this apparently unnatural proceeding, is found to be 

 probably a work of necessity ; or it may be simply a part of 

 the usual economy of the insects. When the males and 

 females arrive at maturity and quit the nest, the great end 

 of the community is accomplished, the perpetuation of the 

 species is secured ; additional assistance in the labours of the 

 commonwealth becomes no longer requisite ; even the feed- 

 ing of the brood is no longer necessary, perhaps not even 

 possible ; be this as it may, the clearing out of the remaining 

 worker brood is a common occurrence at the latter part of 

 the season. 



Solitary Bees. — The AndrenidcB, speaking according 

 to my own experience of them during the past season, may 

 be said to have become almost extinct ; the whole tribe bur- 

 row in the ground, and it is such species that have suffered 

 most during the two or three previous unusually wet seasons 

 — that is, wet at the time when these bees appear; if such 

 be the case, and the bees have awoke from their winter 

 torpidity, it is sure to prove very destructive to them. I 

 found, however, for the first time specimens of Dasypoda 

 hirtipes near Lowestoft. Several of the most abundant spe- 

 cies, such as are usually observed in numbers in early spring- 

 flowers, I have not seen at all during the past season j in 



