^O ROEBUCK : ON YORKSHIRE WASPS. 



specimens in Mr. Robert Cook's collection' vrliich lie states to 

 have been taken at Bishophill, York, aobve 30 years ago, by a 

 friend of his whose bee-hives the Hornets infested. I cannot 

 help thinking that there is some mistake in this record, and that 

 the Hornet cannot be admitted into the Yorkshire fauna. It is 

 so large and conspicuous an insect that if it was a true denizen 

 of our county the fact would be well known and attested by 

 specim.ens in many collections. True, it has often been reported 

 to me, but the production of specimens has invariably dispelled 

 the illusion by their turning out to be large wasps. The only 

 other Northern records I have seen are two in number : Mr. Bold 

 admits it into his Northumberland and . Durham list on what I 

 cannot but consider very unsatisfactory grounds : and in the 

 E. M. M. Dr. Chapman, a competent observer, records that a 

 Hornet sailed within a foot of huii at Glen Coe, in Scotland, but 

 the specimen in this case having- only been seen, not caught, it 

 remains open to doubt whether Dr. Chapman may not after all 

 have been mistaken, in spite of his v>'ell-known entomological 

 attainments. Moreover the specimen being a solitary one, it is 

 still further open to doubt, supposing the species to have been 

 correctly identified on the wing by Dr. Chapman, whether it was 

 not a straggler, accidentally introduced. 



Vespa vulgaris, L. The Common Wasp. 



The nests were very abundant in July 1852 on the borders 

 of woods near Wakefield (F. Smith, Zool. x. 3625-6; also 3699 

 et seq. Frequent at Pannal ! Leeds I Bramham 1 and near Grass- 

 ington. 



Vespa Germanica, Fab. Near Wakefield in July 1852 

 (F. Smith, Zool. x. 3626). The most abundant species that I 

 have taken : Leeds ! Barwick-in-Elmet ! Harrogate ! Pannal ! &c. 



Vespa rufa, Z. "Yorkshire" (Smith, Ent.Ann. 186 1, p. 80). 

 The nests were not by any means uncommon near Wakefield 

 in July 1852 {F. Smith, Zool. 1852, x. 3626). One was taken in 

 a bank, containing about 150 wasps, all neuters with the exception 

 of one female and about half-a-dozen recently developed males, 



Ti-ans.Y.N U., 1&". .Series D 



