88 HYMEXOPTERA. 



and the fact of having caught them all in the same situation, 

 led me to the conclusion, that they had probably been intro- 

 duced in wood from a neighbouring dock-yard, which lies 

 about a hundred yards below the windows of our house, but 

 I did not know that they were foreign insects, till your 

 notice of them apprised me of the fact." 



It is at once evident that my correspondent supposes these 

 wasps to be wood-boring insects : such is not the case, they 

 are paper-makers, and construct their nest, — a single ex- 

 posed comb, and attach it to trees, walls, posts, window- 

 frames, tScc, in fact, to anything suitable that is situated in a 

 proper position for their purposes. The timber imported to 

 Penzance is all cut into shape, and comes over, either in the 

 form used for breastsummers for building purposes, or as 

 boards, logs, &c. ; untrimmed wood, I imagine, is never 

 imported from America, so that it is difficult to imagine the 

 introduction of these wasps by such means ; a wasp might 

 hide away in some hole or crevice, and so reach this country, 

 but that they should do so two years in succession is not 

 very probable. That a wasp imported should survive the 

 winter at Penzance, when brought from a climate like that 

 of N. America, is quite possible; and, also, that in the genial 

 county of Cornwall they should establish themselves, is, to 

 my mind, very probable. 



My correspondent having taken the Polistes in 1866 

 proves nothing as to the time when, if imported at all, they 

 were first introduced; in fact, so little has that part of the 

 country been investigated, as to its Hymenopterous fauna, 

 that I shall not be greatly surprised if I find a species of 

 Polistes indigenous to that part of Cornwall. The common 

 w^asp of Europe, Vespa vulgaris, is found in N. America, 

 and we ma}', therefore, hope to find a Polistes inhabiting 

 both countries. (See Note at p. 96.) 



