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VI. Observations on the Economy of Pompilus punctuin and 

 other Hymenoptera. By F. Smith, Esq. 



[Read 1st August, 1853.] 



Some time ago, Mr. W. Thompson, Director of the Natural His- 

 tory Department at the Crystal Palace, submitted to my exami- 

 nation a number of mud or clay cells, evidently the production of 

 some insect ; at that time I expressed an opinion that they were 

 constructed by some Diplopterous insect, probably an Odijnerus ; 

 these cells were found at the beginning of November, on the top 

 of a straw bee-hive, worked into the layers, the bee-hive having 

 been covered with an old cloth and a milk pan ; others were found 

 in the back part of an old mirror. These discoveries were made 

 by the Rev. W. Delmar, in his garden at Elmstone Rectory, near 

 Canterbury. 



At the expiration of some weeks I observed in the glass-topped 

 box, in which I had placed the cells, a black species of Pompilus, 

 running about with great activity. The insect proved to be a 

 male, and I at once recognized the species to be the P. puuctum 

 of Fabricius. I was much pleased at this, as I felt a certainty of 

 having an opportunity of settling beyond a doubt what was the 

 female of that species. On the following day, the 15th of June, 

 two more males came forth ; no further development took place 

 until the expiration of ten days, when, to my astonishment, or 

 rather satisfaction, for 1 had long suspected some mistake respect- 

 ing the species, two females appeared, and proved to be the P. pe- 

 tiolatus of Van der Linden. 



Shuckard, in his Essay on the Fossorial Hymenoptera, states, 

 that he is unacquainted witli the female of P. punctum, which Van 

 der Linden considered to be tlie P. petiolatus, and Shuckard de- 

 scribes a different male as that of the species. Mr. Desvignes, 

 who now possesses the Shuckardian collection, placed in my hands 

 the types, but there was no male amongst the specimens of P. petio- 

 latus, and we are left in ignorance of the male described in the 

 Essay ; but in all probability it was only a variety of the " punclum," 

 which would in some instances answer the description of Shuckard, 

 the white markings on the face being, I have observed, frequently 

 more or less obliterated. Be this as it may, the P. petiolatus of 

 Van der Linden is certainly the female of P. punctum. 



In the first volume of the " Transactions" of this Society will 

 be found a most able and interesting Paper on the habits of the 

 fossorial Hymenoptera, by Mr. Shuckard, who there most sue- 



