02 HYMENOPTERA. 



then changed to pupoe, and all such, I have little doubt, 

 perished on the return of the cold, wet and severe weather 

 we again experienced. 



Vespidce were numerous during the hot weather alluded 

 to, and that family, according to my observation, is the 

 first to perish under such circumstances as followed that 

 interval. I have not seen, probably, more than twenty 

 wasps during the past summer and autumn, although, in 

 some districts, I have ascertained, they were numerous; 

 such is, no doubt, usually the case during seasons when 

 these insects are not universally so. In the year 1860, I 

 believe, I only saw three wasps ; but I was at that time in- 

 formed, they had been very plentiful in the neighbourhood of 

 Kelso. 



Observation has shown, that seasons in which Hymenop- 

 iera are generally abundant have been preceded by severe 

 winters, followed by genial spring weather unbroken by any 

 interval of severe frost, or any superabundance of heavy 

 rains ; a combination of both is most fatal to insect life. 



In the month of June last, I visited a locality where an 

 extensive colony of AntliopJiora acervorum has long been 

 established ; on examining their burrows, I found not less 

 than twenty dead bees for every living one ; the majority of 

 the dead ones were in the pupa state, others more or less 

 advanced towards the perfect condition ; such, I believe, will 

 always be found to be the case, where weather, such as we 

 experienced at the beginning of the last Entomological 

 season occurs. 



During the summers of 1858-9, I visited the neighbour- 

 hood of Lowestoft in Suffolk; a locality, at that time, ex- 

 tremely rich in rare 2ii\di\ocii\ Hymenoj^t era ; again I visited 

 the same spot last season, when, on the contrary, an Hy- 

 menopterous insect was quite a rarity. In no place, with 



