HYMENOPTERA. 
35 
activity of their movements, the members of this family are amongst the most 
attractive of all hymenopterous insects. Some species prey upon lepiclopterous 
larvae, others on grasshoppers, while another provisions its nest with three or four 
crickets. These latter, however, are not captured without a severe tussle. The 
Sphex leaps upon the cricket’s hack, delivers a couple of stings, and all is over. 
Family CRABRONID.je. 
The numerous members of this family are usually black with yellow markings. 
Their nests are formed either in the ground or in decaying timber; the tunnels of 
wood-boring beetles being utilised in the latter case. While the smaller species 
feed chiefly on aphides, the larger kinds are more partial to flies. Figures of three 
species, viz., Crossocerus scutatus, C. elongatulus , and Crabro patellatus, are given 
1 2 9 8 10 6 7 11 
3 5 13 4 12 
Mellinus arvensis —1, Male ; 2, Female ; 3, M. sabulosus ; 4, Bembex rostrata ; 5, Philanthus triangulum, Cerceris 
arcuaria ; 6, Male ; 7, Female ; 8, Trypoxylon figulus ; 9, Crabro patellatus —Female ; 10, Male ; 11, Crossocerus 
scutatus —Male ; 12, C. elongatulus; 13, Oxybelus uniglumis. (1, 10-13 enlarged, the rest nat. size.) 
! 
in the annexed illustration. Another form is Mellinus arvensis, usually met with in 
pine-woods, where it may be seen searching about on the sandy soil, and is particu¬ 
larly fond of the honey-dew deposited by aphides. A smaller form (M. sabulosus ) 
is likewise shown in the illustration. The same illustration also shows Trypoxylon 
figulus, a black insect, which may be observed throughout the summer flying 
busily to and fro among posts and decaying trees. A variation in the mode of 
making its cell will be noticeable. Selecting a long tunnel, the female brings in 
aphides or small spiders, lays an egg, deposits a suitable supply of food, and fits on 
the top a wad of mud, above this again another cell is constructed, similarly 
capped with mud, and so on till the tunnel is full. 
