398 /A/IKUVUCIJUA/ lU Z.UULU(SY CHAP. 



in a way unlike that of any of the social wasps or bees, for after 

 having laid an egg in the little burrow or tunnel that she has 

 excavated or taken possession of, each mother wasp collects and 

 places in the burrowone,oroften several caterpillars whichappear 

 partly stupefied, possibly, it is thought, owing to their having 

 been stung before they are stored away, though this does not 

 seem an established fact. On these caterpillars the larvae feed. 



Families 4 and 5. Digging Wasps (Pompilidae and Sphegidae). 



The Digging Wasps diSer from the Solitary True Wasps 

 (Eumenidae) in certain points of structure, though in habits, 

 and sometimes in coloration, they resemble them. They are 

 therefore classified apart from all the true wasps in the 

 division Fossores, of which Pompilidae and Sphegidae are the 

 two chief families. In these forms, the front wings are not 

 folded over longitudinally when at rest, and the eyes have 

 not the kidney shape characteristic of true wasps. They 

 all have the habit of burying with their eggs a mass of 

 stupefied insects to serve as food for their larvae. 



To this division belongs the red and black bodied, common 



Pompilus viaticus that stores up spiders 



for its young ; also the Common Sand 



Wasp {Ammophilasabulosa) which buries 



caterpillars in the same way for food. 



The Common Yellow Sand Wasp 



(Mellinus arvensis) has a much shorter 



^'%Z'w^\Ti:) Petiole,._and it buries flies. There is 



(AmmopUla sdlndosa). a weevil-killing Sand Wasp (Cerceris 



arenaria), and also many British 



species of Crahro which usually form their burrows in the 



pith of stems in rotten wood, or in the ground, storing them 



with flies. Crabro is black-bodied or wasp-like in colouring, 



and its larvae spin tough brown cocoons. 



Classification of Bees and Wasps mentioned in Chapters 

 XXIV. and XXV. 

 Sub-order. Hymbnoptera acdlbata (the Stinging Hymenoptera). 

 Division 1. AnthopMla ( = Family 1. Apidae). Bees with 

 protrusible proboscis, always feeding on nectar or 

 pollen ; the body hairy, some of the hairs always 

 being plumose or feathery. 

 ' (For further classification see p. 386.) 



