248 Rev. Mr. Kirby'j Obferval'ions upon InfeBs thai prey upon Timber^ 



Cojfus is known to attain its great fize by feeding upon the willow, 

 and other kinds of wood when in a decaying ftate. The fame tree 

 affords nouriniment, as we learn from Mr. Lewin (a), to the Sphinx 

 crabroaiformis ; as does the poplar to the Sphinx apiformis (b), and 

 vefpifornns. The infedts of the Hymenoptera clafs bring on the 

 decay of ligneous fubftances in various ways. The nefls and cells 

 of many of the genuine Vefpa; are made of a kind of paper formed 

 of the filaments of wood. I have often been highly amufed by 

 feeing the common wafp, which, though a mifchievous, is at the 

 fame time a very ingenious animal, employed in fcraping gate-pofls 

 M'ith her ftrong maxill;i, to colleft materials for this piirpofe ; a 

 fight which Reaumur informs us it was long before he coukl 

 enjoy (c). The Hornet frequently perforates hollow trunks, to build 

 her paper metropolis in a Iheltered fituation (d). The Leaf-cutter 

 bees, of which there are feveral fpecies all confounded under the 

 common name of A. centttncuhrris, in order to place their centunculi (e) 

 of curious conftruftion, in perfect fecunty, make their way into the 

 body of various trees. One fpecies feleds the willow for this pur- 

 pole (yy, another the oakf^^, or the elm indifferently. Apis 



(a) Linn. Trnnf. Vol. iii. p. 2. (h) l|bid. p. I. 



(c) Reaiim. Tom. vi. Mem. vL p. 180, 1 8 1. 



(d) Ibid. Mem. vli. p. 217. I am informed ty my friend Sir Thomas Cullum, whofe 

 fpirit and accuracy of obfervation throw light upon every branch of Natural Hiftory, 

 that in the year 1785, in Mr. Porte's gardens at Ham near Dovedale, the hornets dcRrovcd 

 a great number of the young oaks by making their way into their heart, and there 

 building their nefls. 



(c) Ibid. Mem. iv. Tab. 9. fig. 8 — 18 1. Tab. 10. Reaumur's fpecies makes its neft 

 binder ground ; but Geoffroy's {Hi/}, ah. da Inf. Tom. il. p. 410. n. 5.) and our Englilh 

 ones make theirs in the trunks of trees. 



f/J Rtiii H'lfl. Inf. p. 245. Sir E. King, in Ph'Jtf. Tranf. abridged by Lowthorp, 

 Vol. ii. p. 773- Willoughby in Do. p. 773, 774. Dr- Martin Lifter in JJo. 774, 



ii.) ■^/'■f ccr.tiinciiltirisi Donovan Brit, Inf. Vol. iv. Tab. 1 20. 



viaxi'.'o/a 



