298 THE ENTOMOLOGIST, 



slight cocoon on the surface of the earth. The pupa is 

 blight red, and resembles that of Eupithecia subfulvata. 

 Another somewhat similarly-coloured larva, apparently that 

 of a Tortrix, feeds inside the cones in company with that 

 of Eupithecia togata. Sir Thomas Moncreiffe believes it 

 to be A. strobilella. — [Rev.] H. Harpur Crewe; Drayton- 

 Beauchamp Rectory, Tring, November 1, 1875. 



Paucity of Wasps ; Destruction of Fruit by Bees. — I have 

 observed that the bees have been to the full as destructive to 

 the fruit as wasps are in ordinary years : figs, peaches, 

 plums, and pears, have been entirely eaten away by them. 

 Can there have been any failure in the honey from the 

 flowers this year? or is it only the presence of the wasps 

 that keeps away the bees from the fruit in ordinary years ? 

 Last year our honey was all eaten, and our bees nearly 

 destroyed by the wasps. Queen wasps were, as you observe, 

 very abundant in the spring; still this paucity of wasps is 

 partial. A fortnight ago 1 was staying with a friend about 

 five miles to the north of Launceston, and I never saw wasps 

 more abundant than they were there. — \_Rev.] G. C. Green; 

 Modbury, South Devon, October 4, 1875, [From the 'Field.''] 



[There is no doubt that the past autumn has been 

 remarkable for both these phenomena. I have received fifty- 

 one letters on the first subject, and the daily papers have 

 teemed with communications on the second. In the spring 

 of this year queen wasps were observed in unusual numbers ; 

 and it was generally supposed that the workers would be 

 proportionately abundant in the autumn. This has not been 

 the case; but, on the contrary, wasps have been either fewer 

 than usual or entirely absent. Cornwall, Dorsetshire, Devon- 

 shire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Somersetshire, Suffolk, 

 Surrey, and Sussex, have generally enjoyed immunity from 

 the visits and depredations of wasps ; while from one locality 

 in Essex, and two in Kent, the number appears to have been 

 as large as usual ; and from several localities in Lancashire, 

 Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland, greater abundance 

 than common has been reported. In the garden of Her Grace 

 the Duchess Eleanor of Northumberland bottles baited with 

 sugar and water were found to be almost filled with wasps; 

 and the contents of two of these bottles were counted, and 

 found to be respectively nine hundred and one thousand two 



