THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 47 



unusually warm for that time of year, the thermometer 

 standing at 60° Fahr. I thought of the Rapae of the year 

 before, and at once saw my mistake, which was very pardon- 

 able, considering the extremely small difference between the 

 two species. I captured the specimen, and placed it in a 

 confectioner's glass, together with a branch of the elder-bush. 

 When the glass was placed in the shade the animal was 

 quiet, and even fell down and lay on its back. On bringing 

 the glass into the sunshine it revived again, at first moving 

 the antennae violently up and down, and then running 

 rapidly about. By four o'clock, when I again observed it, 

 it had laid twelve eggs : these were deposited in little 

 receptacles on some of the leaves, of which three are repre- 

 sented at fig. 11. I removed one of the eggs very carefully 

 out of its little pouch, and found it was bean-shaped, as 

 shown at fig. 12; it was, however, rather flat on one side; 

 the colour was pearly white, and the skin remarkably thin 

 and soft. T was now pretty certain that the larvce, vvhich I 

 had up to this time reared from the elder-bush, were of the 

 same species as the leaf-wasp, which had laid the eggs in 

 question. If I had been able to have kept the eggs, so as to 

 have reared the larvag from them, I should have made sure 

 upon this point, but I could not preserve the leaves in a 

 fresh state for a sufficiently long time; and so this brood, 

 also, came to nothing. 



On the 11th of April I saw two similar wasps on an elder- 

 bush, but I did not find any eggs. On the same day I took 

 two males of this species on the same bush. After this time 

 the weather changed ; it became raw, with north and north- 

 easterly winds, accompanied by rain and hail. However, on 

 the 19th of May following, the weather being warm and 

 bright, I saw two wasps pair: a female of Albicincta was 

 seated on a jasmine close to the elder-bush, a male ffying 

 backwards and forwards in the neighbourhood; he suddenly 

 alighted next the female, which took refuge on the under 

 side of the leaf; she was followed by the male, and thereupon 

 returned to the upper side, the male pursuing; approach- 

 ing her he turned round, and the pairing took place, the two 

 insects with the anterior part of the body turned away from 

 each other; the wings of the female remained closed, while 

 those of the male were half opened and vibrating ; in both, 



