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VI. Notes on some Hymenopterous Insects collected by Mr. 
Peckolt at Catagallo, South Brazil. By FreprEricK 
Situ, late Pres. Ent. Soc. 
[Read 38rd September, 1866. ] 
Some months ago Mr. Daniel Hanbury mentioned to me that a 
correspondent (Mr. Peckolt) was desirous of obtaining the names 
of certain bees and wasps collected near Catagallo. I readily 
agreed to assist in furnishing the information required ; and the 
insects have lately come to hand. They were sent in twelve small 
stoppered bottles, in spirit, and each bottle contained a consider- 
able number of some species of bee, wasp, or other hymenopterous 
insect. A list of the insects was forwarded, and the vernacular 
names were given; and they were divided into sections, namely, 
those of bees, wasps, and ants. 
The investigation of the contents of these vials proved specially 
interesting, so much so as to induce me to believe that a short 
account of the result of my examination of them will be accept- 
able to the Society. I may premise that it will be found to 
have added considerably to our knowledge of the economy of 
the Trigone, the stingless honey-bees of Brazil. 
I will, in the first place, give some account of the insects 
placed by Mr. Peckolt in the section of wasps. 
As far back as the year 1844, Mr. Curtis published a paper in 
the Linnean Transactions (vol. xix. p. 250, pl. xxxi. figs. 1, 2) 
on a species of saw-fly, which he named Dielocerus Ellisii, a very 
beautiful insect, and one whose economy is exceedingly interest- 
ing, from its being apparently proved to be a social species during 
all its changes of condition. That the larve of many species of 
Tenthredinide are social is a fact long known to Entomologists ; 
but Dielocerus Ellisii was stated to undergo its final change in 
a nest, constructed by the united labour of the community. This 
nest was described as from four to five inches in length, by 
about three at its widest diameter, its general outline being ob- 
long-ovate, and of a silky texture, closely resembling the cocoon 
of a Bombyx. The cocoons spun by the larve are of a soft and 
pliable consistency, and, as the larve spin in close proximity to 
each other, the cocoons, which otherwise would no doubt be of 
VOL. V. THIRD SERIES, PART was pecelens dome AA 
