A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



ACULEATA 



The principal feature which separates the Aculeata from other Hymenoptera is the modifica- 

 tion of the ovipositor into a retractile sting which is entirely hidden within the abdomen when 

 withdrawn. The larvae are soft legless grubs, either living under the protection of the adult insects 

 or in cells constructed by them. The series comprises four divisions, viz., Heterogyna (ants), 

 Fossores (solitary or digging wasps), Diploptera (wasps), and Anthophila (bees). 



The ants are characterized by the presence of one or two small nodular swellings between the 

 ' thorax ' and the ' abdomen ' in the place of the simple petiole or stalk of other Petiolata. They 

 live in extensive communities consisting of males, females, and workers or imperfectly developed 

 females. The males and females are winged, but the workers which are by far the most 

 numerous are wingless. After pairing, the males die and the females cast their wings and devote 

 themselves to egg-laying. The eggs and the helpless maggots hatched from them are tended by the 

 workers, which feed the larvae and also the fertile females. The nests are made by the workers, 

 and are irregular chambers connected by numerous galleries constructed underground, beneath stones, 

 in rotten wood, etc. Formica rufa, occurring commonly in fir-woods, builds large mounds of twigs 

 and pine-needles, often two feet high and a yard in diameter. The Heterogyna are not very well 

 represented in Nottinghamshire, only five native and two introduced species being recorded. The 

 Isopod Crustacean or Woodlouse, Platyarthrus hoffmannseggii, is common in many places in the nests 

 of certain species. 1 



Among the fossorial Hymenoptera each species consists of male and female only ; they are 

 neither social nor gregarious, and are of carnivorous habits. The females construct nests by burrowing 

 in sandy ground or in wood or plant-stems ; in these burrows they lay up a store of food for the 

 use of their offspring, consisting of spiders, aphides, larvae of Lepidoptera, Diptera, beetles, other 

 Hymenoptera, etc. ; these are usually not killed, but paralysed by being stung. So far, about 

 forty-five species have been collected in the county. 



The Diploptera or true wasps may be distinguished from the other groups by the anterior wings 

 being longitudinally folded when at rest. Some species are solitary, consisting only of males and 

 females, and build earthen nests which they provision with caterpillars. The species of Odynerus 

 make their nests in holes in walls or woodwork, in plant-stems, or in burrows in the ground. 

 O. spinipes burrows in clay banks and builds a beautiful projecting trumpet-shaped approach to its 

 nest. The Vespidae or social wasps live in communities consisting of males, females and workers. 

 The nest is fashioned of paper manufactured by the wasps from the woody tissue of plants, and the 

 'comb ' or mass of cells in which the larvae are reared is usually in several distinct layers or plates 

 situated one above the other. The grubs are fed on insects or fruit, or both. In the autumn the 

 males and workers die off, but the young fertile females hibernate, and each founds a new nest in 

 the following spring, lays eggs, and rears a brood of workers which add largely to the size of the 

 nest and tend the succeeding broods of larvae. For long only workers are produced, but late in the 

 summer males and perfect females are developed. We possess five of the eight British species of 

 Vespa in Nottinghamshire. Of these V. crabro, the formidable hornet, is by far the rarest ; indeed 

 the only local specimen I have seen is one captured on the river bank at Ollerton by a man who 

 was cutting the water weeds ; it was taken by him to the Rev. W. Becher, who kindly presented 

 it to the Nottingham Museum. Fespa sylvestris, which suspends its nest from the branches of trees 

 and bushes, is very common with us, and may often be seen in numbers at the flowers of the 

 Water Betony (Scrophularia aquatica). Fespa vu/garis, V. germanica and V. rufa, which construct 

 their nests underground, are all common. 



The Anthophila or bees may in general be known from the other Aculeate Hymenoptera by 

 the plumose or feathery hairs with which they are more or less clothed, by the flat and broad basal 

 segment of the hind foot, and by the long ' tongue ' adapted for sucking nectar from flowers ; 

 moreover the abdomen is never narrowed at the base to form an elongated stalk as it so often is in 

 the other groups. The majority of the Anthophila are solitary, but innumerable nests are frequently 

 constructed in close proximity. A soft sandstone road-cutting at Bagthorpe, Nottingham, exhibits 

 over a considerable area many hundreds of the burrows of Colletes davlesana to the square yard of 

 surface. Some burrow in wood or excavate bramble stems, others construct nests of clay in 

 cavities of walls or posts, or even utilize empty snail shells for the purpose. The writer has bred 

 nearly fifty specimens of Osmia rufa from a door lock which was completely filled with the clay 

 cells of this species. Some species live parasitically in the nests of other bees; thus Epeolus productus 

 occurs in abundance with the Colleta davlesana mentioned above, and the species of Nomada live at 

 the expense of species of Andrena. Anthophora acts as host to the parasitic Melecta, and Coelioxys is 



1 It occurs most frequently in company with Laslus niger, less often it is associated with Lasiusflavus and 

 Myrmita rubra. 



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