582 Insects. 



Anecdote of Flies being found dead on the Blossoms of Hemlock. I noticed two 

 days ago that the flowers of the common hemlock (Conium maculatum), which grew in 

 a meadow near here, were covered with dead flies, but should have taken no further 

 notice of it, as I frequently see dead flies sticking to the leaves of plants or lying about 

 on pathways, had it not struck me that their attitudes were too natural for them to be 

 dead, and on examining them, I found that they must have died suddenly, as they 

 were in the very attitudes and performing the customary operations of their natures, as 

 if struck suddenly by the wand of an enchanter, and turned into stone. Is this plant 

 poisonous to insect life, and so instantaneously ? — or what could be the reason of it ? 

 Several had their wings extended, as if they had j ust settled on or had been hovering 

 over the blossom at the time. And one fly was in the act of killing another, nearly as 

 large as himself, the yellow fly that comes, I believe, from dung, or at all events con- 

 gregates about it a good deal. He had hold of his victim by the head and throat with 

 his mouth, and his feet were so firmly fixed on the blossom, that they had both dried 

 there, and looked exactly like a stuffed hawk in a case, picking at the bird in its ta- 

 lons. I brought home the flower on which they were, and showed them to several 

 people, but the flies were so dry that in handling their legs broke off, and they be- 

 came disunited, so that I was unable to preserve them. This may not be strange to 

 you or others, but T had never noticed it before ; but strange or not, I can vouch for 

 the truth of it. — /. W. J. Spicer ; Esher Place, Surrey 



Notes on the Dirt-Daubers, North American Insects belonging to 

 the Wasp Tribe. By P. H. Gosse, Esq. 



One of the many things that struck my attention on first going into 

 the Southern United States, was, in most of the farm houses, lumps 

 of yellowish mud stuck on to the walls and rafters, and particularly 

 the large projecting chimneys. Some of these were of irregular shape, 

 nearly as large as one's fist, and others were cylindrical, as thick as 

 one's thumb, and three or four inches long. The little boys (and boys 

 in the back-woods know a good deal about Natural History) informed 

 me that these were the nests of the dirt-daubers ; and on taking down 

 one of the shapeless lumps, which had been fixed right over my bed, 

 and carefully opening it, I found within, many long-oval cells lined 

 with a thin coat of brittle shelly substance. These were arranged 

 side by side, in two rows : each contained the slough of a perfected 

 insect. In a much smaller nest I found but one cell, and no exuviae, 

 but six spiders, all dried. The long thimble-like nests were divided 

 into cells, in a single series, by transverse partitions of mud. The 

 children soon showed me the insects to which the nests belonged, al- 

 though, as the season was spring, they were not then building. They 

 were several species of the genus Pelopseus, and I thought it a good 

 name enough, — ttex<xs, near, Sttoiov, the chimney. 



By and bye, in the summer, I cultivated an acquaintance with these 

 funny little architects, and had opportunities of watching the whole 



