SOCIAL WASPS AND HORNTAILS 83 



sealed up for the pupa stage." Prudential considerations 

 at this moment suggested the advisability of putting 

 a stop to the further development of this interesting 

 colony, lest battle might have to be done against scores 

 of winged warriors, instead of one solitary heroine; 

 and the whole colony, together with its foundress, 

 were accordingly massacred. Many other instances are 

 on record of the occurrence of hornets' nests in sheds, 

 lofts, and thatched roofs. 



The Sirex mentioned above may now come in for a 

 somewhat more detailed notice. It occasionally occurs 

 in houses in the same way as the large Longicorn beetles 

 referred to in a previous chapter; it is a wood-borer, 

 and attacks fir-wood chiefly, and its larvae and pupse 

 are therefore sometimes present in the timber used in 

 the construction of houses ; and, enclosed in this, the 

 immature insect may be introduced into the edifice, 

 the completion of its metamorphosis being delayed till 

 after the timber has been placed in position, when it 

 emerges, to find itself, not amidst its native pines, but 

 an uninvited guest in society to which, on account of 

 its size, its appearance, and its loud buzzing, it is often 

 an object of unnecessary terror. Sometimes it does not 

 issue from the wood for a considerable time, which may 

 occasionally amount to years. Amongst other instances, 

 there is a record of the emergence of several specimens 

 from the floor of a nursery in a house that had been 

 built for three years, and where, very naturally, they 

 caused quite a fright to the children who were its 

 occupants. Usually they occur in houses either singly, 

 or at most in twos or threes, but sometimes considerable 

 numbers have been met with; for instance, in the 

 summer of 1878, no less than a dozen specimens were 

 captured in an ironmonger's shop in Chichester. It is 



