IIYMENOPTERA-ACULEATA. 387 



distinguishable upon the wing by its slow and 

 listless flight, in contradistinction to the busy 

 activity displayed by the social wasps. 

 [Pollistes binotatus, Saus. — A specimen of an exotic 

 wasp so labelled is in the Free Museum, Liver- 

 pool. It was taken in an undoubtedly wild 

 state upon a flower at Ince Blundell, by Mr. W. 

 H. Mountfield, in 18T5. It was probably 

 originally imported with goods from abroad, as 

 another example apparently similar has since 

 been captured in the Liverpool Docks.] 



Ettmenid^;. 



" Solitary " wasps, with male and female only, and no 

 worker, as in the genus Vespa. The species of the 

 genus Odynerus are called " mason wasps," and 

 construct their cells of sand and mud in various 

 situations. Some burrow in sandy banks (0. antilope 

 and crassicornis), some in dead wood (0. trif asciatus) , some 

 in bramble sticks (0. Icevipes and melajiocephalus) , while 

 others select such ready-made cavities as crevices in 

 doors, keyholes, &c. (0. parietum and antilope). 0. 

 spinipes is noticeable for the remarkable nest which it 

 makes in mud banks ; this is furnished with a most 

 beautiful projecting entrance tube, of an inch or more in 

 length, curving downwards, constructed of small pellets 

 of dried mud. 0. peniformis also makes a somewhat 

 similar nest. The Odyneri prey chiefly upon the larvae 

 of Lepidoptera, storing them up alive in their cells, after 

 paralyzing with their stings, like the Fossores. 



Our one British species of the genus Eumenes does 

 not form several cells in a tunnel or cavity like the 

 Odyneri, but constructs 'beautiful little mud cells, looking 

 something like the nest of a tree-building Vespa in 



