INSECTS 



Trichoptera. Mr. Stephens enumerates the following species : 



Hydroptila tineoides Mormonia hirta 



sparsa immaculata 

 Agapetus laniger Leptocerus dissimilis 



- setiferus seminiger 



Beraea albipes Molanna nigripalpis 



Anticyra gracilipes Phryganea grandis 



ciliaris Halesus digitatus 

 Tinodes luridus latipennis 

 Rhyacophila nebulosa Limnephilus geminus 

 Cyrnus unipunctatus punctatissimus 



unicolor fuscatus 

 Polycentropus subpunctatus sparsus 



trimaculatus substrigosus 

 Notodobia atrata Anabolia nervosa 

 Silo pallipes testacea 

 Gofira pilosa Chxtopteryx villosa 



flavipes brevipennis 



Hymenoptera. In some parts of Hertfordshire the Honey Bee is a source of considerable 

 revenue to the cottager. Besides the ordinary Black Bee (Apis mellifica] several foreign species 

 have been introduced, the best known being A. ligustica, a rather larger insect with yellow 

 bands, and this hybridizes freely with A. mellifica, producing a strain which though good 

 honey-gatherers are of more uncertain temper and less easily managed. For this reason 

 many beekeepers on detecting the results of a cross of this kind immediately remove the queen 

 bee in order that the old black strain may be reverted to. The social wasps are represented 

 both by the Tree or Wood Wasp (Veipa sylvestris), whose pendent nests are often found of a 

 considerable size, and by those species which construct their nests in the ground. There is in 

 the Hertfordshire County Museum at St. Albans a large nest of V. sylvestris which was taken 

 from a conifer in the grounds of North End House, Watford, and presented to the museum by 

 Mr. Percy Manning. In some seasons wasps of several species are present in great numbers 

 and do a very considerable amount of injury. The wasp infestation of 1893 will be long 

 remembered by fruit-growers on account of the loss they then sustained. Not only were the 

 outdoor crops attacked, but vineries and orchard houses were invaded to a serious extent. 

 This visitation of wasps was dealt with at some length in a paper read before the members of 

 the Hertfordshire Natural History Society. 1 Some interesting facts relating to the hybernation 

 of queen wasps then came under notice. Mr. Richard Shillitoe of Bancroft, Hitchin, reported 

 that in a heap of stones near Ickleford Gatehouse large numbers of queen wasps were found 

 by the roadmen, and at St. Ibbs near Hitchin a quantity estimated at about 2OO were discovered 

 in an old piece of sailcloth on the roof of a shed. 



The commoner species of ants are present, and Sawflies are a source of trouble in fields 

 and gardens, especially notable in this respect being the ravages committed by the Turnip 

 Sawfly (Athalia spinarum), the Currant Sawfly (Nematus ribesii) and the Slug Worm (Eriocampa 

 limacina). The Great Wood Wasp or Giant Sirex (Sirex gigas) occasionally finds its way into 

 houses and causes alarm, being mistaken for a hornet. 



The following are the species of Hymenoptera observed by Mr. Stephens near Hert- 

 ford : 



Cladius morio Selandria adumbrata 



immunis geniculata 

 Pristiphora duplex atra 



varipes ovata 

 Nematus bicolor Sciapteryx costalis 



dimidiatus Dosytheus anticus 



miliaris hyalinalis 



pavidus xanthopus 



ruficornis Dolerus fumosus 

 Croesus septentrionalis (also found at Barnet) palmatus 

 Athalia suessionensis Emphytus cingulatus 

 Selandria hyalina perla 



testudinea Lyda hortorum 



1 Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. viii. p. 22. 

 169 



