THE SAXD WASPS. 



375 



which is perhaps the most widely distributed of any, and of which two species are exceedingly 

 abundant in Britain, the petiole of the abdomen is similarly elongated, and in some species the first 

 two segments take part in its formation. This is the case in the common British Sand Wasp (Ammo- 

 phila sabulosa), a formidable insect nearly an inch in length, having the head and thorax black and 

 hairy, the second and third segments of the abdomen red, and the remainder black. The abdomen is 

 strongly clubbed. This insect is very common in sandy places, and stores its nest with Caterpillars, of 

 which the female under favourable circumstances lays in a store of three or four according to their 

 size in each cell. She stops the entrance of her burrow with a small heap of stones after depositing 

 each Caterpillar, and should bad weather intervene before the whole necessary store has been accumu- 

 lated, she will bring in 

 further supplies as soon 

 as the opportunity offers. 

 Ammophila hirsuta, 

 another British species, 

 with a shorter abdominal 

 petiole and a more hairy 

 surface than the preced- 

 ing, is said by Mr. F. 

 Smith to provision its 

 nest with spiders. This 

 is the case also with 

 another long - stalked 

 species (Pelopceus spi- 

 rifex), which occurs com- 

 monly in central and 

 southern France and 

 other countries border- 

 ing the Mediterranean, 

 and differs from all that 

 have been hitherto 

 noticed by its habit of 

 building a nest of clay, 

 containing several cells, 

 in sheltered situations, 

 about walls, barns, and 

 houses. The female 

 builds cell after cell, 

 storing them with 

 Spiders and laying an 

 egg in each as she com- 

 pletes them. Pemphre- 



don lugubris, a very common small European and British species, of a uniform black colour, burrows 

 into decaying wood and in bramble sticks, and stores its cells with Aphides, which it collects and 

 scrapes together into a ball in a most unceremonious manner. 



FAMILY POMPILID.E. 



The Pompilidse agree in general structure, and also in habits, with the insects of the last 

 family, with which and the two following families they used formerly to be grouped under the name 

 of Fossorial or Digging Hymenoptera, from their general practice of digging burrows for the recep- 

 tion of their eggs. The chief point of difference between the Pompilidee and the Crabronidse consists 

 in the structure of the prothorax, which in the former is produced on each side as far as the root 

 of the wings as in the True Wasps but the wings are incapable of being folded longitudinally, and 

 they are generally large and broad, with three sub-marginal cells. The antennae are long, and not 



PELOP^EVS SPIRIFEX AND XEST. 



