210 INSECTS. 



decaying wood ; the latter also in rose and bramble 

 sticks. 



The second genus, Crabro, has large somewhat tri- 

 angular eyes, rounded at the angles, and wings with one 

 submarginal cell, which is truncated and has a fragment 

 of nerve springing from the end. 



The genus presents many varieties. In some species 

 the abdomen is attached by a longer or shorter stalk, 

 having a little hump at the termination, while in others 

 it is almost sessile. In some the ocelli are arranged in 

 a triangle, in others in a curved line. The legs are 

 short, thick, and very spinous in most species,* and the 

 males of some have the basal joint of the front tibise 

 much dilated. In one species, C. cribrarius, the basal 

 joint of the tarsus forms a broad thin plate, giving the 

 limb a deformed appearance. The antennas also are 

 various in form. The colours in this genus are black, 

 black and reddish brown, or black banded with bright 

 yellow. In all but three of the species (of which there 

 are thirty-six), the legs are partially of a bright yellow. 



The different species form burrows in sandbanks, in 

 wood more or less decaying, in brambles and rose sticks- 

 One species, C- luteipalpis (one of those with no yellow 

 on the legs), which burrows in the mortar of old brick 

 walls, stores up the aphis as food ; another, C. brevis, 

 living in sandbanks, has been seen with a small species 

 of beetle, but nearly all of which the habits are known, 

 feed their young on various kinds of diptera. Crabro 

 vagus (PI. VIII., fig. ])is one of the commonest species. 



Of the next genus, Oxybelus, but one species, O. 

 uniglumis, is very common. Mr. Smith describes it as 



* This is generally the case with burrowing insects. 



