NOTES ON HYMENOPTERA. 83 



which I am acquainted, are Bomhi usually more abundant ; 

 and 1 am not in the slightest degree underrating the number, 

 when I estimate the number that I saw on the wing at 

 about thirty individuals. During the entire month of Au- 

 gust the weather was all that could possibly be desired, even 

 by an Entomologist, yet even this failed to produce insects 

 of any order in abundance. 



One circumstance in connexion with such Aculeate Htj- 

 menoi^tera as I met with is certainly remarkable ; the ma- 

 jority of them were mere Liliputian representatives of their 

 race; some of the w^orking bees, of Bomhus lapidariusj 

 were so diminutive, that I mistook them for a species of 

 Osmia, The sandy cliffs and banks near Lov/estoft 

 usually swarm wi'th fossorial insects, but last season they 

 were quite as scarce as the bees ; and the specimens of 

 TipMa femorata were miniature representatives of the 

 species. 



I have endeavoured to show the effect of certain con- 

 ditions of wenther upon Hymenopterous insects, but their 

 scarcity is not at all times to be attributed to such influ- 

 ences ; other causes operate frequently in causing a scarcity, 

 or even a total absence of them, from localities where they 

 may have been found abundantly for several years; such 

 disappearances will frequently occur during the most 

 favourable seasons. 



For years past, I have felt assured that Hymenopteraj as 

 well as other insects, migrate from one locality to another ; 

 and, we are fiequently told, that certain species have been 

 hunted up, even to annihilation, in certain places ; but obser* 

 vation has induced me to believe that, in most instances, 

 their disappearance is due to other causes. I have observed 

 the common Anthophora acervorum, — a bee that colonizes 

 in larger numbers, perhaps, than any other, — after having 



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