A CATALOGUE OF THE INSECTS, ETC. 137 



A^'I. — A Catalogue of the Insects of Nortliumherland and Durham 

 (Aculeate Hymenoptera). By Thomas John Bold, Vice- 

 President OF the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club. 



This division of the large order Hymenoptera, the Aculeata, 

 is so called because in it the females and workers, or neuters, of 

 the social species are furnished with an aculeus or sting. It in- 

 cludes the Ants, Sand and Wood Wasps, Wasps, and Bees, all 

 pre-eminent amongst insects for the wonderful development of 

 their instincts. 



The economy of the Ant has been an object of wonder from 

 the earliest times ; its industry and forethought have become 

 proverbial. The assiduity with which it seeks out food for 

 its young, and its methodical manner of carrying it home, are 

 equally worthy of our admiration. A brood of caterpillars is 

 discovered feeding on the foliage of a tree ; up swarm the Ants 

 and carry off the spoilers. That they may not impede each 

 other, the empty ones march from the nest by one j)ath, up one 

 side of the bole, whilst the laden ones descend by the other, 

 and go home by another road. Again, a forager finds a dead 

 beetle or a defunct worm, both beyond its strength to trans- 

 port, but by some means or other the colony become informed 

 of the event, and the prey is borne off by the united labour 

 of the community. Their fondness for the secretions of Aphides 

 is well known ; and that they may always have a supply within 

 reach, they collect and carry into their nests some of the root- 

 feeding species. How curious, too, are their nests ; what won- 

 ders of combined labour and of constructive ability; those of 

 the burrowing species being a wonderful reticulation of most 

 intricate tunnelling, and often of such length as comparatively 

 to dwarf into insignificance the most gigantic burrowing of man- 

 kind ! 



Amongst the Sand and Wood Was2)s we find manj- instances 

 of actions which appear to be almost more than instinctive : 

 one species is recorded, which, arriving in the vicinity of its 

 nest with a living caterpillar, and not finding the place at once, 

 it fastened the prey between two stems of grass until it sought 



