30 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. [February 



sandbanks, but I have not found it elsewhere. Sphrodms^^ occurred 

 twice, which is remarkable as the dwelling-houses in that district are 

 few and widely scattered, — but I am disposed to think the species is 

 much less rare on this side of the Irish sea than is commonly 

 imagined. 



As the net result of this season's work I have only added one new 

 Carabid to the Irish list: — Pogonus littoralis, although I have satisfied 

 myself that some beetles considered rare in Ireland are by no means 

 really so. 



H. G. CUTHBERT. 



A PRELIMINARY LIST OF 



THE HYMENOPTERA-ACULEATA 

 OF LANCASHIRE & CHESHIRE, 



. WITH NOTES ON THE HABITS OF THE GENERA, 

 BY WILLOUGHBY GARDNER, F.R.G.S. 



Read before the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society, December 14th, 1891. 



( Continued from page 23.) 



FOSSORES. 



Solitary insects, of two sexes only, male and female, no neuter; 

 comprising certain Ants and all the Sand wasps and Wood wasps. The 

 females burrow little tunnels in sand, mud, dead wood, &c., where 

 they deposit their eggs in a nidus, storing up as sustenance for the 

 future grub such animal food as Lepidopterous larvae, Diptera, 

 Coleoptera, other Hymenoptera, Aphidse or Arachnidae, according 

 to the species; these products of the chase are either stored up alive, 

 or reduced to semi-torpidity by the poison of the insect's sting. Though 

 "solitary" in habit (/.^., the female constructs a single nidus for herself 

 in contradistinction to the common nest among several hundred 

 individuals of the "Social" species) the Fossores often form large 

 colonies of many separate burrows in close proximity. 



* Since last publication of "Gossiping Notes," I have been informed by my friend 

 Mr. T. H. Hall that two specimens of this insect were taken in a beetle-trap at a 

 Watford Brewery. It would thus appear that Mr. Kendrick's hints on beetle-traps 

 are worthy of a great deal more attention from persons who desire to obtain this 

 species. — g.a.l. 



