SAMOUELLE S 



Leay, Esq., the attention of naturalists was called to 

 the subject, and it has since been taken in profusion 

 in Shropshire, by the Rev. F. W. Hope; and at 

 Southgate, not uncommonly, by Mr. Edwin Walker, 

 in August and September, 182^ ; and this gentleman 

 observed, that the individuals taken in August were 

 smaller than those that were captured later in the 

 autumn. 1 have seen this insect alive in Norfolk : 

 it has also been taken in Somersetshire ; and my 

 friend, Mr. Dale, found one in his orchard in Dor- 

 setshire, which induced us to search for a wasps' 

 nest, which we found in the neighbourhood; and 

 having destroyed and dug it up at night, it was con- 

 veyed home in a vessel closely covered, and upon 

 examination the next morning, 1 had the gratification 

 of releasing a male from one of the cells, the external 

 figure of which was sexagonal, hut the operculum 

 i ular ; and the same structure is exhibited in 

 one that .Mr. Stephens received from .Mi-. Hope. 



" The eggs must be deposited in the cells of the 

 wasps, for which purpose the acute abdomen of the 

 female is well adapted ; and the larvae, when hatched, 

 are probably nourished hy the wasps as their own 

 offspring: — the perfect insect, from the smallness of 

 its mouth and the weakness of its organs, cannot 

 however he a very formidable enemy. When it 

 emerges from the chrysalis, it leaves the nest and re- 

 sorts to neighbouring flowers, like the rest of the 

 Mordeltidce: the wasps therefore can sustain no 

 other injury than that which arises from the few 

 cells occupied by the larvae." 



