54 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
hand, I saw hardly any wasps at all on the Norfolk Broads this year. 
They were becoming abundant on sugar near Brockenhurst as early 
as July 2nd.—C. Mretuows; Bishop’s Stortford College, Herts. 
Scarcity oF VEspa.—On p. 264 of last volume I mentioned a 
strong nest of V. germanica, and it may interest readers to know that 
I took that nest on October 24th last. It was in the clay bank 
of a small pond in a rather frequented place near here, and I had 
kept it under observation for some weeks waiting for a favourable 
opportunity. I chose a Sunday morning, and sallied forth just after 
7.30 in order to avoid publicity as far as possible. In this I was 
successful, for the morning was a little misty and very sharp, there 
being thick hoar-frost on the grass and foliage. On arriving at the 
pond I was thuch surprised to find about a dozen workers clinging 
to the bank immediately round the entrance hole to the nest cavity 
in spite of the sharp frost, most of them looking numbed with the 
cold, but seven at least were vibrating their wings and crawling slowly 
about as if to get up their circulation! On my touching a small 
nodule of clay which partly blocked the entrance three other workers 
rushed smartly out and at once attacked me, but fortunately they 
struck my coat and did no harm. I at once injected a little cyanide, 
stopped the hole with a rag, and strolled round a bit to keep my own 
circulation going. On returning in about ten minutes I at once 
proceeded to remove the front of the bank and found the nest just 
inside, a thickness of 2 in. of clay only intervening between it and the 
outer world. I was struck with the few wasps visible inside, and 
the warmth of the nest cavity was very noticeable when I inserted 
my hands to lift out the nest, which was as large as a Rugby football. 
The bottom of the cavity consisted of large pebbles mixed with the 
usual wet mass of greyish mud and dipterous larvee, but as the 
latter seemed to comprise only Volucella pellucens and some small 
‘‘muscids ”’ I did not waste time over them. On reaching home the 
nest was installed in a box and covered with a sheet of glass and 
some perforated zinc, giving forth in the course of the next week or 
so some hundreds of queens, drones and workers.—C. NIcHOLSON ; 
Dale End, Chingford. 
SOCIETIES. 
SouTHAMPTON AND District EnromonocicaL Sociery.—Meeting 
held Tuesday, September 21st, 1920, at 47, Tennyson Road, South- 
ampton. This was the first meeting held by the Society. Mr. W. 
Fassnidge, M.A., having just arrived back from France after seven 
weeks spent in studying the Lepidoptera of that country, gave a very 
interesting lecture on his experiences. He illustrated his lecture by~ 
means of specimens he had collected, chiefly around Dijon, including 
living larvee of P. machaon and P. podalirvus—Mr. F. J. Killington 
exhibited a remarkable series of the beetle Hlater sangwinolentus, 
including one with the red replaced by yellow, and a series, showing 
great variation, of Strangalia armata; also the larva of Nisoniades 
(Thanaos) tages hibernating in a box. 
October 5th, 1920.—Mr. F. J. Killington gave a paper on the 
Odonata of the district and exhibited a large number of preserved 
