254 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS. 



it was found the obstruction had been occasioned by 

 a hymenopterous insect, apparently some species of 

 bee, having selected this retreat for the construction 

 of its nest. The sand was intermixed with a large 

 quantity of pollen, which the bee had laid up in store ; 

 but the persons who brought it to me had neglected 

 to observe whether the larva was still in it." * 



COMMON WASP.f 



THE large female wasps which occasionally appear 

 in the spring, in April and May, are well known to 



* Several cases similar to the above are on record by different 

 authors. Thus, Colonel Sykes speaks of a species of Sphex in In- 

 dia, which makes its earthen nest within the locks of the doors, 

 and blocks up the key-holes. Reports of Brit. Assoc. vol. vi. 

 p. 252. There is also mention made in The Zoologist (pp. 265-6), 

 of a fossorial hymenopterous insect that deposited several green 

 caterpillars in succession, to the number of half a dozen, between 

 the open leaves of a book (each immured in a cell of moist clay), 

 which chanced to be standing on one end near a window. The 

 book was unfortunately disturbed afterwards, so that the caterpil- 

 lars were not reared. This insect is thought by the editor to have 

 been most probably the Epipone Itevipes. Mr. Curtis, however, 

 mentions a case, which seems similar to this last, in which the 

 insect was reared, and proved to be the Odynerus parietinus. He 

 says, " My friend Mr. Charles Fox detected upon the top of a 

 book, across which another was laid, some cells of a somewhat 

 triangular form, covered externally with mud, and formed of a 

 silky substance within : he very obligingly transmitted the book 

 to me last winter, and in the spring nearly twenty specimens of 

 the insect figured (Odynerus parietinus) made their appearance ; 

 they were all females, and did not vary in the least." Brit. En- 

 torn, tab. 137. 



t Vespa vulgaris, and V. rufa, Linn. 



