i8 93 .] THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 107 



observations have as yet been confined to a very small area in the two 

 counties, and records from new districts are much to be desired. 



Now, even if a member of our Society does not intend to work 

 specially at the Hymenoptera, he may yet do something by keeping his 

 eyes well open during his Entomological rambles, provided he has first 

 just a general idea of what information is wanted. 



Many an Entomologist working in one particular order would be 

 only too glad to keep specimens for friends interested in other orders, 

 if he could only feel some assurance that he was not needlessly 

 burdening both himself and his friends with examples of such species 

 in their respective orders as Xylophasia polyodon, Pterostichus madidus and 

 Andrena albicans ! 



With this end in view, therefore, the following brief notes may be 

 of interest, and serve to give some idea to the ordinary observer, who 

 is not a specialist in Hymenoptera, of " what to look for " in this order 

 upon his expeditions in the country during the coming season. 



There are several species of Hymenoptera Acideata which are notable 

 in, or peculiar to, Lancashire and Cheshire, and about which further 

 information is much to be desired. 



ASTATA STIGMA. 



This is a small sand-wasp ; the females excavate little tunnels in 

 the hard sand of the hills along our sea coasts and elsewhere ; they 

 prey upon the larvae of Lepidoptera. The insect is about three lines in 

 length ; black, with abdomen red ; it is very similar to several near 

 relations among the Pompilidce, but the male, at any rate, may be at 

 once and easily distinguished from them by the enormous size of its 

 eyes ; the eyes of most of the sand wasps, and all of the Pompilidtf, 

 occupy only a small space on each side of the head when seen from 

 above ; in Astata stigma, however, they are so large that in the female 

 they approach very close together, and in the male they actually touch, 

 at the top of the head. The insect appears in June and July, and is 

 fond of the hottest sunshine at mid-day, when it runs rapidly about on 

 the bare sand often in company with various Pompilidce. The species 

 occurs in Finland and various places on the Continent, but has 

 hitherto only been taken very rarely in this country. We have two 

 records in our district ; the first capture was by the late Mr. B. Cooke 

 on sandhills at Southport in 1879, and the writer was fortunate 

 enough to take a second specimen on the Wallasey sandhills in 1891. 

 Therefore, a sharp look out should be kept, in these two localities at 

 any rate, during the present year for this little Astata. 



OXYBELUS MUCRONATUS. 



Another of the sand-wasps worth looking out for. Although it is 

 allied to the sand-wasps by mode of life, it is not like them in appear- 



