203 



CHAPTER XVI. 



H YMENOPTERA. A CULEATA. 



THE second division of the predaceous stinging Hyme- 

 noptera, known as Fossores or diggers, consists of the 

 Sand-wasps and Wood-wasps. From the true Wasps 

 they are known by their fore-wings, which are not folded ; 

 from the Bees by their tarsi, of which the first joint is 

 not wider than the following. 



In general appearance some of them at first sight 

 resemble the solitary species of true Wasps, others the 

 Ichneumons, others, again, the gay yellow-banded para- 

 sitic Bees; but sufficient rules have already been given 

 for distinguishing them from all of these insects. They 

 vary much in colour and somewhat in form, some being 

 black, others black and red, or black with creamy spots, 

 others banded with bright yellow, and these latter are, 

 like those of other banded and spotted insects, sub- 

 ject to much variation of marking. In form they are 

 usually slender and wasp-like, with the abdomen in some 

 attached by a decided stalk, while in others it approaches 

 to being sessile. The abdomen is never laterally com- 

 pressed as in some of the Ichneumonidse. 



The habits of these insects are interesting. The 

 Iarva3 being insect-feeders, the parent forms a cell either 

 (according to the species) in the ground, in the stalks of 

 plants, willow, bramble, or rose, in old posts, &c., or 

 in some tubular cavity or burrow which it finds ready 



