NOTES, CAPTURES, ETC. 239 



came forth from their winter quarters in extraordinary numbers. 

 Along the hedge-sides, and in the woods and plantations, they 

 were as plentiful as ever I saw the workei's on a hot August day. 

 The most serious alarm prevailed amongst gardeners, bee-keepers, 

 and all whose " crops" were likely to be affected by the plague of 

 wasps which seemed inevitable, and paragraphs on the subject 

 appeared in the local newspapers. There seemed every reason to 

 fear that the wasps would be a hundredfold more numerous than 

 in 1880; but simultaneously with the advent of the cold wet 

 weather that set in about June 2nd, and has continued since 

 without intermission in this district, the wasps disappeared ; and 

 since tlien I do not believe I have seen a total of fifty examples. 

 What was the reason of this disappearance ? I scarcely think 

 this can be wholly attributed to the cold wet weather, but 

 undoubtedly that was the chief cause. I am of opinion that many 

 of the female wasps were barren, and never commenced to form 

 nests. The sunnners of 1877 and 1879 were wet and sunless, and 

 there were almost no wasps; while the summers of 1878 and 1880 

 were very fine seasons, and wasps were exceptionally numerous. — 

 Robert Service; Maxwelltown, Dumfries, August 16, 1881. 



FoRFicuLiD.E.— Those species which compose this little group 

 of insects are placed by some naturalists under the order 

 Orthoptera, while others consider that they possess such 

 distinctive features as to render them of sufficient importance 

 to form a separate order, and have thus termed them the 

 Euplexoptera. Whether they are entitled to this position in 

 Science it is not my object now to discuss; but, as these insects 

 are this season so extraordinarily abundant in our neighbourhood 

 as to cause them to be quite a pest, perhaps a short account of 

 their doings may be of interest to some of the readers of the 

 ' Entomologist.' Their fondness for dahlias is well known to 

 every horticulturist, and therefore it is not surprising that they 

 have this summer vigorously attacked these plants. In one bed 

 our "traps" daily yield large quantities, and still they come as 

 numerous as ever, devouring the buds long before the flowers are 

 visible, thus effectually destroying the object of the gardener. 

 They have also taken possession of some picotees, where some 

 may be found in every flower. The entomologist at night finds 

 them a source of much annoyance. Sugaring some trees in our 

 garden, a distance of 12 feet apart for a length of 100 yards, we 



