NATURAL HISTORY. 



including C. sexmaculatus and C. vagus, which are very abundant in Britain, make their burrows in 

 decaying wood, old posts, and the dead trunks of trees, and also show a preference for Dipterous Flies. 

 A few occupy the pith cavity of bramble and rose sticks with their little cells. 



The species of Cerceris, which have the junctions of the abdominal segments strongly constricted, 

 for the most part collect small Beetles as a provision for their larvte, Weevils of various kinds being 

 apparently preferred. Some of the exotic species are of considerable size upwards of an inch in 

 length and of great beauty. One of them attacks species of Buprestidse, and another provisions its 

 nest with Honey Bees. The great enemies of the Bees, however, are the species of the genus 

 Pkilanthus, which are numerous, and distributed nearly all over the world. There is one British 



species (Pkilanthus tri- 

 angulum), which is very 

 local in the country, and 

 forms its burrows in 

 sandy places. In the 

 Isle of Wight Mr. Smith 

 observed it provisioning 

 its nest with hive Bees, 

 and two species of An- 

 dreiiidae. This insect 

 (which has also been 

 called Pkilanthus api- 

 vorus, from its Bee-eat- 

 ing habits) lies in wait 

 for its victims among 

 the flowers which they 

 frequent, and, on their 

 settling in search of 

 honey, dashes upon them, 

 seizes them with its 

 strong mandibles be- 

 tween the head and the 

 thorax, and stings them 

 in the abdomen. The 

 Bee, being thus rendered 

 quite helpless, is gi-asped 

 by the jaws and legs of 

 its assailant, and imme- 

 diately carried off to be 

 deposited in the nest of 

 the latter. The nest is a 



tunnel made in some bare sandy spot, often in a path, carried down for some distance, more or 

 less perpendicularly, and then turned horizontally parallel to the surface. 



The large spe'cies of the genus Sphex, some of which gi-ow to a length of about two inches, 

 make war upon the Grasshoppers which abound in warm sandy places. These insects, in attacking 

 their bulky prey, use every endeavour to turn the Grasshopper on his back. When they succeed 

 in this they clasp his long hind legs with their fore feet, and standing over him inflict two stings, 

 one in the neck and the other in the suture between the pro- and meso-sternum, and these soon 

 paralyse the victim, which is then dragged to the nest of its ruthless destroyer. Sphex flavipennis, 

 a well-known species of the south of Europe, furnishes each nest with about four Grasshoppers, 

 the soft interior parts of which are speedily devoured by the voracious larva, the hard, chitinous 

 skin being left almost uninjured. 



In several tropical species of Cerceris and Philanthus the first segment of the abdomen is much 

 elongated, forming a long slender footstalk; in another genus of these Sand Wasps (Ammophila} 



PHILANTHUS TRIANGULT,'M AND NEST. 



