368 HYMENOPTERA ACULEATA. 



muscorum. Smith, Ent. Ann., 1870, records a curious case 

 of this species invading a wren's nest, heaping up her bee 

 bread, etc., amongst the eggs of the bird, till the parent bird 

 was forced to desert the nest. Mr. Sladen found a mouse 

 nest in an old shoe occupied by a colony of this species in 

 full work. 



S. hortorum, Linn, {jiubterraneiis, Atict. nee Thorns, 

 Harrisellus, Kirb., Tunstallanus, pars, Kirb.). — Head clothed 

 with black hairs, face very long and parallel-sided, the 

 cheeks shining, more than half the length of the eyes, 

 antennte in the c? with the third and fifth antennal joints 

 subequal, the fourth very short, tongue in both sexes very 

 long, when fully extended almost as long as the entire 

 insect, but rather shorter in vars. subterraneus and Har- 

 ris.iellus ; thorax clothed entirely with black hairs or with 

 an anterior and posterior band of yellow ones; wings rather 

 smoky ; abdomen either clothed entirely {var. Harrisellus) 

 with black hairs, or (typical hortorum) with yellow hairs on 

 the first segment and base of the second, black on the second 

 and third, and white on the fourth and fifth, black on the 

 sixth. Between these extreme varieties almost every variety 

 occurs ; in the ? of what used to be called subterraneus, 

 the hairs are rather shorter and the colouring is inter- 

 mediate between typical hortorum and Harrisellus, the 

 yellow being of a browner tint, and the abdomen, like that 

 of Harrisellus, less pointed at the apex, and more bulky 

 than in typical hortorum ; segments beneath clothed with 

 pale or sooty hairs, armature of the c? with the sagitt^e 

 narrow, finely and sharply serrate beneath, lacinia elongate, 

 narrow, and apiculate towards the apex, considerably pro- 

 duced at its base along the inner margin of the stipes, and 

 strongly emarginate, its base recurved and terminating in 

 a spine, the emargination densely fringed with hairs ; legs 

 clothed with black hairs in the ? and ? , with reddish 

 and black hairs in the cj ; metatarsi in the c? fringed with 

 very short hairs. 



