Mason-Wasps. 37 



The length of this insect rather exceeds half an inch, and its 

 colour is black, profusely spotted and barred with yellow. It 

 is rather slenderly made, and gives little external indications 

 of the great strength which it possesses. 



This insect prefers to stock its nest with weevils of differ- 

 ent kinds a most singular choice, when the hardness of the 

 exterior is taken into consideration. The well-known nut- 

 weevil (Balaninus nucum), with its hard, round body, and 

 long mouth, is frequently taken by this species of Cerceris, 

 and Mr. Smith further mentions that he has captured it in 

 the act of taking the weevil called Otiorhynchus sulcatus to its 

 nest. 



This beetle is among the most noxious of our garden foes, 

 and the more so because its ravages are unseen. In its larval 

 state it infests the roots of many of our succulent plants and 

 flowers, and has a habit of eating away the plant just at the 

 junction of the root and stem. Even flowers in pots are apt 

 to be infested by this insect, and often die without the cause 

 of their death being discovered. It is about half an inch in 

 length, white, and is destitute of feet, their office being per- 

 formed by bundles of stiff, hairs, which are dispersed round 

 the body. 



In its perfect state it is about the third of an inch in 

 length, the colour is black, covered with a coating of very fine 

 and short grey hairs, and along its back are a number of 

 short longitudinal grooves. From this latter circumstance it 

 derives its name of " sulcatus" or grooved. 



The exterior of this beetle is extremely hard, even ex- 

 ceptionally so among the hard-bodied weevils. It is ex- 

 tremely difficult to get a pin through the body, and the ento- 

 mologist is often obliged to bore a hole with a stout needle 

 before the pin can be inserted. Yet, the Cerceris uses this 

 insect as the food of its young, and stores them away in its 

 burrow. That the young should eat them seems as impossi- 

 ble as if a lobster or a box-tortoise had been inserted in their 

 place. It is, however, thought by most practical entomolo- 

 gists that the shell of the weevil is softened by lying in the 

 damp ground, and that as the young is not hatched for 



