380 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



insects which live in societies, and the wounds they 

 inflict, perhaps it may be superfluous to speak at any 

 length ; almost every one has, at one time or another, 

 had an opportunity of appreciating some of them. We 

 have been stung by solitary bees, humble bees, wasps, 

 hornets, and hive bees, and the agony caused by the 

 latter we have found more intense than anything we 

 ever experienced from the sting of either of the others. 



The species of the genus Crabro make their cells in 

 wood, which they bore for the purpose, and provision 

 them with two-winged flies and other insects. We 

 have taken several species, among others Crabro vagus, u 

 a small wasp-like fly, and Crabro cribrarius, or the 

 sieve bearer, which derives its specific name from a 

 curious concavo-convex semi-transparent plate on each 

 of the anterior tibiae of the males. The use of these 

 singular appendages is unknown to entomologists, but 

 from the fact that under a lens they are seen to be 

 full of bright specks, not unlike minute perforations, 

 they have been fancifully termed sieves. Ammophila 

 sabulosa, a long black insect, with a reddish orange- 

 coloured belt round the pedunculated abdomen, is not 

 uncommon at the sand pit and the railway cutting at 

 Westheath. It excavates its burrows in the sand 

 banks, and, after depositing an egg in each, stocks 

 them with the caterpillars of some species of moth. 



The wonderful history of the Ant tribe, like that of 

 the Honey bee, is so generally known through the 

 works of eminent entomologists, and the individuals 

 of many of the species are so widely and numerously 

 distributed, that it will be quite unnecessary here to 

 give a description of the appearance of these insects, 

 or to enter into the details of their economy. We 

 have seen colonies of the Horse ant (Formica rufa) 

 under the trees on Scot-lands, near Bramstead heath, 

 among the birch groves on Westheath, and in other 

 localities. A confused heap of scraps of sticks, straws, 

 and other materials forms the exterior covering of the 



