NOTES ON VARIOUS INSECTS. 463 



trees by a sweet juice which exuded from the trunks, and 

 which has been supposed to have been caused by the wounds 

 inflicted by the Cicada orni. There were frequently twenty 

 or thirty on one tree, and the effect produced by the numbers 

 buzzing about with their beautiful violet wings was highly 

 gratifying to an entomological eye. 



18. Mutillidm. — Of thirteen species of Mutilla which I 

 found in Cephalonia, M. europcea was the most common, and 

 varied much in size : male specimens were very rarely seen. I feel 

 very little doubt but that the Mutillidcc are parasitical on other 

 bees or wasps. I have frequently seen the females enter the 

 nests of Andrenidce, and occasionally those of Cerceris. I 

 also once caught a female climbing the trunk of the Ulmns 

 campestris, on which some of the Eumenes had formed their 

 clay bottle-shaped nests. Another species I took commonly 

 on the sea sand, in which the Bembex rostrata had dug its 

 nests. The cry of the Mutillce is shrill, and the sting very 

 pungent ; they are swift in their motions. The males appear 

 to pass the night under rubbish. I caught one one evening 

 under a stone which I had turned up for Coleoptera, and 

 another under some sea-weed, when looking for Scarites 

 Icevigatus. 



19. Scholia 2-ci?icta, Fab. — On July 19th, in the same bay, 

 a large spider had stretched its web between two spurge 

 bushes. One of its victims was a Scholia, which was com- 

 pletely enveloped by the spider in a shroud of white silk ; and 

 on tearing this off, I received practical, and not particularly 

 agreeable, proof, that the Scholia was still alive. A few days 

 after, I saw several females, whom I traced to a sand bank, 

 where their nests were. The nest runs about eighteen inches 

 under ground, and the opening to it is very wide. I poked 

 several of the Scholia out, but found nothing in their nests ; 

 but on returning, on August 5th, and digging up another, 

 which a female had entered, I found a large locust, L. lineola, 

 which is probably the prey of this species. S.Jlavifrons, which 

 is three times larger, and is found in Corfu, and other parts of 

 the Mediterranean, must commit great havock. S. 2-cincta 

 flies without any hum ; its male I took occasionally, but singly, 

 on flowers. Of S. interrupta and 4 punctata I found only the 

 male sex. They are extremely sluggish, crowding on ears 

 of grass near the sea side, in societies of twenty or thirty : here 



