HORNETS. WASPS, AND FLIES SUCKING THE SAP OF TREES. 1 3 
appearance of those noted by Mr. Christy and other observers, and 
probably also some of the wasps seen at the foot of the tree. Most likely 
these were not all victims of the hornets, although the latter are just as- 
inimical to wasps as both are to flies and other insects. 
“ Bleeding," as observed in the field, is by no means confined to elms, 
as the records below will show, but I will take those relating to that tree 
first. 
The Rev. C. R. N. Burrows, of Mucking Vicarage, in our county, 
writes to me as follows : “A large elm by my entrance-gate was very 
much visited, some three or four years ago, by wasps and an occasional 
P. atalanta [Red Admiral]. The former were quite a nuisance because 
they flopped about in a semi-intoxicated state. In these parts, the natives, 
when they observe wasps, etc., visiting a bleeding tree, observe that the 
tree is doomed to death. The tree above referred to is (as far as I can 
see) quite healthy still. A small tree, also an elm, as far as I can recollect, 
standing by a gate at the entrance of a pasture, was very much affected 
some years ago. That tree is gone." 
Dr. N. H. Joy, referring to his observations on coleoptera frequenting 
Cossws-infected trees for exuding sap and other reasons, remarks 1 that, 
in nearly every case, in his neighbourhood (Bradfield, Essex), these Cossus 
trees are found in groups of three or four close together, and often one 
tree of the group is more severely attacked than the others ; also that 
one occasionally finds an old tree very much eaten, with no others in its 
vicinity. He also mentions Eugonia polychloros (Large Tortoiseshell) 
and Vespa rufa (Red Wasp) as the most conspicuous visitors to the trees, 
apart from coleoptera, and that the sap does not begin to run from the 
trees until June and dries up again by the end of October. The trees 
he observed were mostly oaks (about 25), one elm, and two ashes, one 
of the latter having been killed. 
There is also a reference 2 3 4 5 to the Camberwell Beauty ( Euvanessa 
antiopa) having been caught at a “ bleeding " elm near Cheltenham-. 
Other references to wounded oak trees (attracting Eugonia polychlorus 
and Pyrameis atalanta ) near Herne, Kent, are in Entomologist , xxxiii., 
p. 304. In a long account of hornets at Assington, the vicar alludes 
{Entomologist, xxx., p. 268) to sap exuding from an oak in his shrubbery 
as attracting one hornet at a time ! There is also a reference {Entomol., x., 
p. 252) to E. antiopa having been similarly attracted at Ryde, I.W. 
Beside Dr. Joy's ash-trees there is a reference to one at Horsey, 
Norfolk, attracting E. antiopa and P. atalanta. 
Then we have a note by Prof. Meldolai, recording Vanessa io and 
E. polychloros at sap exuding from birch trees, “ from wounds in the 
bark or other causes," in the plantations near Wanstead Orphan Asylum ; 
and P. atalanta and wasps are also noted 6 in large number at a Cossus- 
attacked birch trunk on Wimbledon Common. 
Besides several other records of butterflies attracted similarly to * 
trees not specified, there is a case of a Cossifs-infected alder near Norwich 
1 Entomologist's Record, xvi., p. 89. 
2 Entomologist, ix., p.201, 
3 hint. R"c., xi., p. 278. 
4 Essex Nut., v., p. iss. 
5 Eut., xxxiii., p. 268 
