( 3° ) 



Seme Obfervations on Wasps, Bees, he. ly Mr. John 

 Banister, in Virginia, 1680. with Remarks by Mr. 

 Petiver. 



I . T JEfpa Lbneumones. Here are divers kinds of Wafps, long 

 V an d flender wailled. All thefe make their nefls of dirt, 

 and are called Dirt-Wafps : fome make their nells contiguous, 

 each adjoining cavity having two or more partitions : others build 

 in clamps, one upon another : they fix them againft the wall or 

 cieling of a houfe, or any where dry. There are not above two 

 belonging to one of thefe vefparies ; for when they have made 

 one cell, and put into it fix or eight live fpiders, they clofe it up, 

 to work upon another, leaving them to brood upon their young, 

 fomething like that of Ariftotle in his Hill. Animal, lib. 1. c. 20. 



The young are cafed with a thin tranlparent horny Ikin of an 

 amber colour : others are in a brown cafe, with a certain number 

 of regular protuberances at one end ; fome again he in brown, 

 that are fmooth ; and fome, if I miftake not, naked. 



z. We have feveral ether coloured Wafps. Two black and 

 white, that build their nells on the fmall branches of trees. Of 

 the fmall neft there is a very good figure and defcription in Pifo's 

 Hill, of Brafil, lib. 5. p. 287. only as it feems to it and ereft, it 

 lliould be pendulous : of an oval form, and the fize of a goofe- 

 egg. The other is much larger, and more round: the wafps alfo 

 are fomewhat larger. One I found, ill fhape and colour like our 

 common Englilh Wafp, whofe little neft was half round (like the 

 bell of a clock) fixed under the covert of a rotten log : thefe nells 

 in colour refemble brown paper ; only the laft tends to a brim- 

 ftone colour. Here are others brown with purple wings, and fome 

 with ftreaks of yellow under their bellies : thefe make their combs 

 of the fame matter, but naked without any cover : they choofe 

 the fhelter of a houfe, &c. though I have ieen them Iticking in 

 a bufh. Here are alio fome philamot, with purple wings ; and 

 others large, black and yellow, with a mouth like a briezc or 

 llout; and one red and black, without wings, whole fling is very 

 long. This laft is a very lingular wafp, and the only one I have 

 yet feen without wings ; from Virginia, Carolina, and Maryland. 

 I think it may not improperly be called Vefpa Virginiana impennis, 

 ex nigro rubroque mixta. 



3. Bombylius Teredo. Thefe Bees eat into timber, and there 

 make their nells. This was in the joiit of a houfe, fo firm and 

 found, that it was very hard entering with a piercer : the hole 

 was juft large enough for the bee to creep in at, and went right 



up about two inches in the wood, and then In a tranfVerfe line at 

 lealt half afoot on each fide, which feemed to me (as I probed it 

 with a knitting-needle) to be twice as wide as the entrance. How 

 many bees belonged to it I cannot tell : three there were in, and 

 I heard one or two about the door. 



MoufFet, in his 6th Chap, de Propoli, p. 36. fays there are four 

 forts of Hive-drofs. 



4. Mufca carnivora Vi-vipara. A fmall brown Fly, that ex- 

 trudes live maggots. 



5. * Cicada & earum exuvia;, Monf. 130. Thofe infects that 

 poifoned the trees in New-England were Cicada, Phil. Tranf. 

 No. 8. p. 137. 1665. 



6. Cimices. Wall-Lice. Another of our plagues : where there 

 is not great care taken to deitroy them, they are as numerous in 

 our beds, as Cock-Roaches in our kitchens. 



7. Cicindela Mas. The Fire-Fly. Cicindela Mariana, <vaginis 

 teneris fufcis marginibus fnhuis, Aft. Phil. 246. p. 397. 16. This 

 is not that great Virginian kind, whofe head Ihines ; nor is it 

 that fmall one, which Pifo fays the Brafilians call Memoa ; or the 

 common kind, though much of that Ihape and fize. This emits 

 its light at two crefcents ; but the whole tail of ours Ihines, which 

 it contracts and dilates at its pleafure. Its Iheath-wings are of a 

 dark purple edged with yellow ; and fo is its head or helmet. 



8. Cicindela Farmina. The Glow-Worm. Is armed, back and 

 head, in joint armour, of a deep murray colour, faftened to the 

 thorax : the tail made of nine Ihelly rings, in the laft of which 

 are viable the two mining points. Its head is black, fo fmall, 

 one cannot, without the help of a glafs, perfeftly difcern the 

 contexture of it. Its eyes (if it have any) like thofe of a Snail, 

 Hand on the tops of two horns. It has fix legs. 



9. The Holy Beetle, in the Tab. Hicroglyphica, mentioned by 

 Mr. Gregory in his preface. Here are multitudes of them in fum- 

 mer. I have often infpefted their rolling pellets, yet could not 

 find any alteration in the mafs of matter through their motion, 

 till I met with one of thefe deferted balls v in the centre lay a 

 fmall white grub. I fince found, in one of thefe balls, two very 

 little young beetles, differing from the old only in lize. 



10. Scarabams colore gri/eo, fcapulis binis quajt oculis nigris mol- 

 litte pubefcentibus nctatus. A fmall Beetle, all black. Found 

 among rotten wood ; called a Snapper, from the noife it makes 

 by thrulling part of its neck into its brealt, and fpringing it 

 back ap-ain. 



a 



* The Cicada, or American Locujl, tvhich appears periodically in 

 Jixteen or feventeen Tears, by Mofes Bartram, 1766. to Peter 

 Collinfon, Efq; F. R. S. &c. 



June 8. 1766. I took feveral twigs of different trees, on which 

 I faw Cicada's darting (as it is called) to lay their eggs in them : 

 I put fome in empty phials ; in phials with a little water ; and 

 fome I ftuck in a pot of earth, which I moiitened to keep the twigs 



frelh. July 21. the eggs in the twigs in the phial with water 



hatched, as did thofe in the twigs in the pot foon after ; but the 

 twigs in the empty phial being withered, the eggs perilhed; yet 

 I have obferved, that one twig accidentally broke off in the woods, 

 if they lie near the ground in the fhade, fo as to continue moilt, 



they hatch ; but in thofe expofed to the fun, die. Thofe hatched 



in the phial, ran down the twigs to the water, on which they float- 

 ed four and twenty hours, and then died. Thofe that hatched in 

 the twigs in the pot, ran down immediately to the earth, and 

 entered at the firft opening they could find, which they fearched 

 eagerly for, as if already fenfible of danger by being expofed to 



the fun. 1 obferved, that in the natural way the eggs are ufually 



hatched in fix weeks ; but if, by the luxuriance of the growth of 

 the fhoots into which the eggs are darted, the rind of the tree clofes 

 and confines them, they will in that fituation remain feveral months, 

 till by fome lucky accident they are difengaged ; and then they will 

 hatch in a few minutes after, and feek their retreat in the earth, 

 in the fame manner as thofe hatched in the ufual time, but may 

 perilh by being fo imprifoned. 



Viewed through a microfcope, the moment they are hatched 

 they appear as perfeft as at their laft transformation, when they 

 rife out of the earth, put off their fcaly covering, expand their 

 wings, difplay their gaudy colours, dart forth their eggs, and 

 after a few days exiitence clofe the period of their lives by an eafy 

 death. 



The means by which they are enabled to continue their fpecies. 

 The females are furnilhed with a bearded dart, with which they 

 pierce the tender branches of any tree they light on, without re- 

 gard to fituation or fpecies : many therefore perilh by the quick 

 growth of the trees in which the eggs are darted ; more perhaps 

 by being laid in twigs that hang over waters. The dart by which 

 the operation is performed conlilts of three parts ; a middle, and 

 two fides : the middle is hollow, through which the eggs are dart- 

 ed ; and the two fides ferve for a covering to defend it : thofe may 

 eafily be taken apart by the middle through the grooves of the two 

 fides ; and it is by flipping the two fide parts by each other rapidly, 

 that they work a kind of a flant hole in the foft twig, till they 

 reach the pith, and then injeft twelve eggs into it: then they 

 begin another hole clofe by the former, and work till they have 

 finifhed two rows each, of twelve or more holes : they remove 

 from twig to twig, till they have exhaulted their ltore, after which 

 they foon expire. 



1 have not yet difcovered the full depth to which they defcend : 



fome, I have heard, have been found thirty feet deep ; I have feen 

 them ten. 



They do not go a great diftance horizontally ; for they are fel- 

 dom found far from the woods, unlefs the ground has been lately- 

 cleared. It often happens, that in the long period of their topical 

 Hate great trafts of land are cleared from trees, and converted in- 

 to arable palture : hence it is no unufual thing to fee them qui* 

 their cells in thofe plain grounds, and haflen to fomeadjacent fence, 

 to put off their incumbrance and prepare for flight. 



This they do in the night, by crawling to fome tree, fence, 

 bufn, or itrong grafs. 



It is remarkable, that they differ from every other infeft in its 

 chryfaiis flate : inflead of being confined in a clofe cover to a cer- 

 tain fpot till it burfts, they have a cover fitted to their form, in 

 which they can travel, and which they cannot quit till they find 

 fome folid fubltance to fix their claws in ; and then, with an ef- 

 fort which requires their utmofl exertion, they burft their cafe, 

 which always opens from the fhoulders to the fore part of the head, 

 out of which they crawl, leaving it flicking fall behind. Thou- 

 fands of thefe cafes may be feen in a morning, adhering to all parts 

 of trees ; which, being hardened in the fun, have a fcaly-like fub- 

 ltance, which, being inflexible after it is dry, often fo incumbers 

 them before they can quit it, that many perifh in the attempt. For 

 this reafon they chufe the night for the operation, and wait the 

 fun's enlivening influence to ltrengthen their wings, which at firft 

 are white, foft, and moift, but foon affume a dark-brown colour, 

 with a firmnefs that enables them to fly, and a tranfparency that 

 adds infinite beauty to their appearances. 



It is remarkable, that in every Hate it is e.igerly purfued for 

 food : in the egg, it is the prey of ants and birds ; in the grub, 

 by hogs, dogs, and all carnivorous animals that can unearth it ; 

 and in its rnoft perfeft ftate, not only by many beafts and birds, 

 but by men ; many of the Indians feed fumptuoully upon them. 



Soon after they arrive at their laft flate of transformation, they 

 feek mates to enable them to continue their fpecies ; and in this 

 they are very fingular : the female is furnilhed with a dart, the 

 fhaft of which takes its rife below the middle : on the contrary, 

 the male projefts his dart from behind, and fixes it near the fhaft 

 of the female, where it remains for many hours, during which 

 time they are not to be feparated without laceration. 



During the feafon of copulation, from fun-rife to fun-fet, the 

 noife they make is fo loud and perpetual, that little elfe can be 

 heard in the wood where they abound : and it is doubtful, whe- 

 ther during the feafon, or during the whole time of exiitence in 

 this ftate, they eat any thing, only by fucking the dew ; for which 

 purpofe they feem to be furnilhed with a long tube, extending 

 from their heads flat to their breafts, and terminating between 

 their legs, without the power of altering its pofition : other than 

 the tube, they fcem to have none for the purpofe of fubfiltence. 



F I N I S, 



