298 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
slight cocoon on the surface of the earth. The pupa is 
bright red, and resembles that of Eupithecia subfulvata.. 
Another somewhat similarly-coloured larva, apparently that 
of a Tortrix, feeds inside the cones in company with that 
of Eupithecia togata. Sir ‘Thomas Moncreiffe believes it 
to be A. strobilella.—[Rev.] H. Harpur Crewe; Drayton- 
Beauchamp Rectory, Tring, November 1, 1875. 
Paucity of Wasps; Destruction of Fruit by Bees.—I have 
observed that the bees have been to the full as destructive to 
the fruit as wasps are in ordinary years: figs, peaches, 
plums, and pears, have been entirely eaten away by them. 
Can: there have been any failure in the honey from the 
flowers this year? or is it only the presence of the wasps 
that keeps away the bees from the fruit in ordinary years? 
Last year our honey was all eaten, and our bees nearly 
destroyed by the wasps. Queen wasps were, as you observe, 
very abundant in the spring; still this paucity of wasps is 
partial. A fortnight ago I was staying with a friend about 
five miles to the north of Launceston, and I never saw wasps 
more abundant than they were there.—[ev.] G. C. Green; 
Modbury, South Devon, October 4, 1875. [From the ‘Field.’] 
[There is no doubt that the past autumn has been 
remarkable for both these phenomena. I have received fifty- 
one letters on the first subject, and the daily papers have 
teemed with communications on the second. In the spring 
of this year queen wasps were observed in unusual numbers; 
and it was generally supposed that the workers would be 
proportionately abundant in the autumn. This has not been 
the case; but, on the contrary, wasps have been either fewer 
than usual or entirely absent. Cornwall, Dorsetshire, Devon- 
shire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Somersetshire, Suffolk, 
Surrey, and Sussex, have generally enjoyed immunity from 
the visits and depredations of wasps; while from one locality 
in Essex, and two in Kent, the number appears to have been 
as large as usual; and from several localities in Lancashire, 
Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland, greater abundance 
than common has been reported. In the garden of Her Grace 
the Duchess Eleanor of Northumberland bottles baited with 
sugar and water were found to be almost filled with wasps; 
and the contents of two of these bottles were counted, and 
found to be respectively nine hundred and one thousand two 
