134 WASPS. 



" Vespa vulgaris, V. germanica, and V. media, were very prevalent 

 here, indeed the Grapes were eaten by them on a large scale " ; also, 

 in one place, a little boy died in consequence of being stung by a great 

 number of Vespa crabro (our English Hornet). 



NOEWAY. 



Christiania. — Dr. Schoyen, State Entomologist, Christiania, was 

 also good enough (on the 31st of October) to send me the following 

 information, to which he added a most interesting account of such 

 unusual prevalence of Wasps some few years back so far north in the 

 Arctic circle, that I have great pleasure in inserting it, with many 

 thanks also for Dr. Schoyen's spirited translation. Later on, Dr. 

 Schoyen favoured me with some further observation of Wasp presence 

 in a rhore southerly part of Norway during 1893. 



Dr. Schoyen wrote me first on October 31st : — " As to the Wasps, 

 they have not, so far as I know, been troublesome this year in our 

 country. Last year they were more numerous than in this year, at 

 least here in the south-eastern districts of Norway, indeed more than 

 usual abundant, though not in such excessive numbers as sometimes 

 may happen even in more northern localities. 



"In the years 1883 — 1884, there was quite an unusual prevalence 

 of them in the Arctic Norway, especially at Tromso and other islands 

 in the vicinity. Mr. J. S. Schneider, Conservator at Tromso Museum, 

 writes in the Swedish ' Entomologiste Tidskrift,' 1885, pp. 148, 149, 

 about this matter as follows: — 'Who can tell all the tears which these 

 wicked animals have squeezed from the poor children, or the swearings 

 which the mowers have thrown out, the half-shut eyes, and the swollen 

 hands and cheeks, which have shown forth in the autumn months of 

 these two years ? Perhaps this may appear as an exaggeration, but 

 it comes, however, pretty near the truth. They built their nests 

 everywhere, in the earth, in stone walls, behind the wainscottings of 

 the houses, under garden benches, on the trees ; it swarmed with 

 Wasps on all the flowers and bushes, the windows were filled with 

 them, they crawled on the plates of the dining-tables, licked of the 

 dishes with preserves, crawled under the clothings, and in the hair, 

 and did not at all spare the ladies I When one was going in the woods, 

 a humming warbling was heard, which is still sounding in my ears ; 

 Wasps everywhere, it was almost a despair,' &c. 



" I have not in the southern districts of our country anywhei'e seen 

 the Wasps so exceedingly numerous as they must have been in Tromso 

 in the said years. The species occurring here are : Vespa crabro, media, 

 saxonica, and var. norvegica, holsatica, vulgaris, germanica, rufa, and 

 PseudovesjM austriaca." — (W. M. S.) 



