( xUi ) 



that for a second or so — evidently examining it closely. The 

 result seemed unsatisfactory; she moved away and hung 

 over another, then, pounce, and she'd got it ! For a brief 

 moment she remained in the air, hovering just over the ground, 

 holding the Skipper. I struck but, oh, I missed her ! and 

 she was ofi like a streak of lightning. I did not see her again, 

 I waited a little (as long as I dared, for the afternoon thunder- 

 storm was coming up) but she did not come back; so once 

 again I have sent you a new Fossor observation, without the 

 specimen ! It was interesting that she should catch a Lycaenid 

 and drop it ; I was so interested watching her that I could not 

 devote any attention to the discarded prey. I expect the 

 reason she did not take the first Skipper was that it was not 

 fat enough. My observations on the Bembex that preyed 

 on Glossina on Nsadzi Island (see my first Sleeping Sickness 

 Report) showed that the prey was the fattest that could be 

 selected — often a pregnant ? fly. So the rejected Skipper 

 may have been a c? and the chosen a ? ; it was a dark brown 

 species with narrow wings, hind-wing beneath with a row of 

 tiny white dots (I don't know the generic name). Has a 

 Bemhex ever been known to prey on Skippers or on any other 

 butterfly ? Don't say it was an Asilid, for it was not ! I 

 could tell an Asilid from a Bemhex with my eyes shut by the 

 buzz alone ! Moreover, I have yet to meet the Asilid that 

 takes its prey sitting. Also the broad abdomen — without 

 pedicel — rendered it unlikely that she was not a Bemhex 

 but some other kind of predatory (perhaps Diplopterous) 

 wasp. I should much like to know if there are any other 

 notes of this kind." 



The following observations on Ammophila beninensis, Pal. 

 de Beau v., or a species very close to it, were recorded in a 

 letter written by Dr. Carpenter, Jan. 14, 1917, from Ndala, 

 which appears on the map as a Mission Station : — 



" On Jan. 3rd I disturbed from her work, on the road, a 

 fine Sphegid. On the wing her long legs were bunched to- 

 gether, hanging down very conspicuously. Her prey, a large, 

 smooth, brown Noctuid larva, lay in a slightly curved posture 

 at the brink of a vertical burrow. I sat down beside it, and 

 when the Sfhex had returned and, as I did not move, recom- 



