176 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



burrows were several large specimens of Sphecodes rufescens, 

 busily hunting about the burrows, the entrances to which 

 were not exposed, but each was covered by a little heap ol" 

 dry dust, which is pushed out by the insect when forming the 

 hole. Presently I saw a female Andrena turn its head down- 

 wards into one of the little heaps of dust, as they did when 

 they wanted to enter the burrow; at the same instant up flew 

 a Sphecodes, and, by tugging at its legs and wings, tried to 

 pull the Andrena out, which at last — I suppose annoyed by 

 the persistence of the Sphecodes — turned out and flew away, 

 when the latter quartered the ground in all directions, as if 

 searching for something it had lost, and, not being successful, 

 prepared to fl}- away, when I captured it. These Sphecodes 

 were large, and fairly corresponded in size to the Andrena, 

 but there were no small ones about; and, as far as my 

 recollection goes, I have not found large Sphecodes without 

 finding large Halicti or Andrenae in its vicinity, and small 

 Sphecodes without small Halicti. Of course this may be 

 only a coincidence, although 1 think it is more than that. 

 Mr. Smith tells me he has seen them burrowing. This 

 certainly goes far to prove that they are constructive bees; 

 but still my opinion is that they are not so. 



In the early spring I was struck with the enormous 

 quantity of female was])S that were met with in every 

 direction. This was not confined to this district, as many 

 correspondents to the gardeners' periodicals noticed the 

 same thing. One of them, who signs himself, "P. Grieve, 

 Bury St. Edmunds," writing to the 'Gardeners' Chronicle' of 

 June 19th, says: — " It has been his duty for the last twenty- 

 eight years to count the slain wasps and hornets, for which 

 oue penny each is given, up to the end of the month of Ma}-. 

 This season the ninnbers reached the enormous quantity of 

 two thousand five iiundred and sixty-six, and the sum paid 

 for them was £10 13?. 10c/.; about five or six per cent, of 

 them were hornets. The numbers captured during the former 

 seasons has varied from five hundred to six hundred, up to 

 the unprecedented number of the present season." Several 

 others have given statistics of numbers killed or paid for, all 

 proving that the number of these insects has been enormous. 

 The nests, however, in this neighbourhood, as far as n)y 

 observation has gone, were not so plentiful as I expected the\ 



