The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Bees, Wasps and Ants, by Edward Saunders This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Wild Bees, Wasps and Ants and Other Stinging Insects Author: Edward Saunders Illustrator: Constance A. Saunders Release Date: October 18, 2010 [EBook #33874] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD BEES, WASPS AND ANTS *** Produced by Chris Curnow, Keith Edkins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) WILD BEES, WASPS AND ANTS Plate A Plate A. 1. Formica sanguinea, male. 2. Formica sanguinea, female. 3. Formica sanguinea, worker. 4. Mutilla europæa, male. 5. Mutilla Europæa, female. 6. Cerceris arenaria, female. 7. Ammophila sabulosa, female. 8. Crabro cribrarius, male. 9. Odynerus spinipes, male. [front. WILD BEES, WASPS AND ANTS And Other Stinging Insects By EDWARD SAUNDERS F.R.S., F.L.S., etc With numerous Illustrations in the text, and Four Coloured Plates by CONSTANCE A. SAUNDERS Printers Mark LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LIMITED New York: E. P. DUTTON & CO. PREFACE The object of this little book is to give in as simple a form as possible a short account of some of the British Wild Bees, Wasps, Ants, etc., scientifically known as the Hymenoptera Aculeata. Of these the non-scientific public rarely recognizes more than the Hive Bee, the Humble Bee, the Wasp, and the Hornet, whereas there are about 400 different kinds to be found in this country, and they can be recognized by any one who is disposed to make a special study of the group. The author has not hesitated to make free use of the experiences of others in regard to the habits of the insects he describes, and he has not thought it necessary in each case to make separate acknowledgment of this. He takes this opportunity of thanking Mr. H. Donisthorpe and Mr. F. W. L. Sladen for assistance in the chapters on Ants and their Lodgers, and Humble Bees, respectively. These pages are written only for the non-scientific, as the scientific entomologist will be already familiar with the elementary facts recorded; but it is hoped that they may be of interest to lovers of Nature who wish to know a little about the insects they see round them and how they spend their lives. Of this knowledge very little exists, as the scraps which have been here brought together evidence. There is an immense field open for research and observation, and the writer of this little book will be very glad if the following pages should encourage any one to take up the subject and add to our present scanty stock of information. EDWARD SAUNDERS. St. Ann's, Woking. CONTENTS PAGE The Subject in General, 1 The Solitary Groups, 6 The Solitary Bees, 9 The Cuckoo Bees, 14 The Fossors, or Diggers, 18 The Solitary Wasps, 24 The Social Groups, 28 The Ants, 31 The Social Wasps, 35 The Humble Bees, 39 The Bees With Bifid Tongues, 44 The Bees with Pointed Tongues, 48 Leaf-Cutting Bees, 52 Osmia and Its Habits, 55 A Colony of Anthophora, 61 Bees and Pollen-Collecting, 65 On Bees' Tongues, and how They suck Honey, 72 A Dreadful Parasite, 77 Amongst the Bees at Work, 81 Ants, their Guests, and their Lodgers, 88 How can an "Aculeate" be Recognized?, 92 Males and Females, 95 The Vagaries of Colour and Structure in the Sexes, 100 The Distribution, Rarity, or Abundance of Various Species, 105 On Bees' Wings, 110 On Breeding Aculeates, etc., 113 {v} {vi} {vii} {viii} On Colour, 119 The Development of Insects from the Egg, 124 On Structure, 132 Index, 141 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT PAGE Fig. 1. Bombus, larva and nymph: after Packard 11 ,, 2. Ammophila 22 ,, 3-4. Spines on the tarsi of female Ammophila 23 ,, 5. Tubular entrance to hole of wasp 25 ,, 6. Basal segments of ants 33 ,, 7. Rose-leaf partially eaten by bees 52 ,, 8. Tufted hairs of hind leg of Andrena 67 ,, 9. Corbicula of humble bee 67 ,, 10-12. Cleaning apparatus of bees 69 ,, 13-18. Hairs of bees, magnified 71 ,, 19. Tongues of bees, magnified 73 ,, 20. Diagram of tongue of bee 75 ,, 21. Stylops 77 ,, 22. Stylops larva in abdominal cavity of bee 78 ,, 23. Antennæ of "Keyhole" wasps 101 ,, 24. Legs of male "Keyhole" wasps 101 ,, 25. Tibia of male Crabro cribrarius 103 ,, 26. Antennæ of male Crabro cribrarius 103 ,, 27. Head of male and female Crabro clypeatus 103 ,, 28. Parts of the insect 133 DESCRIPTION OF THE COLOURED PLATES PLATE A Figs. 1, 2, 3. Formica sanguinea Latr.: male, female, and worker. The host of Lomechusa (p. 89), also a slave-making species; makes irregular nests of dead leaves, etc., generally against a sloping bank. Figs. 4, 5. Mutilla europæa Linn.: male and female. One of the few British species of Aculeates where the female is wingless; found in sandy places running in the sun. Fig. 6. Cerceris arenaria L.: female; burrows in the sand, and provisions its nest with beetles (p. 20). Fig. 7. Ammophila sabulosa L.: female; burrows in the sand, provisions its nest with caterpillars, peculiar for its very elongated waist (p. 22). Fig. 8. Crabro cribrarius L.: male; peculiar for its paddle-like tibiæ and flattened antennæ (p. 103). Fig. 9. Odynerus spinipes L.: male; peculiar for the form of its middle femora, which are cut out almost in two semicircles (p. 101); female makes a tubular entrance to her nest (p. 25). PLATE B Fig. 10.—Colletes succinctus L.: female; lines its cells with a gluey material (p. 44); colonizes in sandy banks; host of Epeolus rufipes (fig. 19). Fig. 11. Sphecodes subquadratus Smith: female; cuckoo of a species of Halictus; female hibernates like its host (p. 17). Fig. 12. Halictus lencozonius Schr.: burrows in the ground; the host of Sphecodes pilifrons Thoms (p. 17). Fig. 13. Vespa crabro L.: female (the Hornet), nests in hollow trees; host of the rare beetle Velleius dilatatus (p. 38). {ix} {xi} {xii} Fig. 14. Vespa vulgaris L.: female: one of our commonest wasps; nests usually in the ground (p. 35); host of a peculiar beetle (Metœcus paradoxus) (p. 38) Figs. 15, 16. Andrena fulva Schr.: male and female; the bee which burrows in lawns, etc. (p. 9); host of Nomada ruficornis var. signata (p. 15). Fig. 17. Panurgus ursinus Gmel.: Female; legs loaded with pollen, burrows in hard sandy paths, etc. (p. 49). Males sleep curled up amongst the rays of yellow composite flowers. Fig. 18. Nomada ruficornis L. var. signata: cuckoo of Andrena fulva (figs. 15 and 16). Fig. 19. Epeolus rufipes Thoms: female; cuckoo of Colletes succinctus (fig. 10). PLATE C Fig. 20.—Megachile maritima Kirby: female; burrows in the ground, makes its cells of pieces of leaves, which it cuts out with its mandibles; host of Cœlioxys conoidea. Figs. 21, 22. Cœlioxys conoidea Illig: male and female; cuckoo of Megachile maritima. Fig. 23. Burrows of Megachile Willughbiella Kirby, in a piece of rotten willow; each burrow originally contained six cells, but two of the left-hand series have been lost. PLATE D Figs. 24 and 25. Anthophora pilipes F.: male and female. A spring bee, the male of which may often be seen in gardens, darting from flower to flower (p. 81); while the female collects pollen; it forms large colonies (p. 62). Fig. 26. Melecta armata Pz.: cuckoo of Anthophora pilipes. Fig. 27. Anthidium manicatum L.: invests its cells with the down off the stems of labiate plants, which it strips off with its mandibles (p. 50). Fig. 28. Osmia bicolor Schr.: female; nests in snail-shells, which it sometimes covers up with small pieces of grass-stems till a little mound is formed, resembling a diminutive ants' nest (p. 59). Fig. 29. Bombus terrestris L.: female. One of the commonest of our Humble Bees; it nests in the ground. It is the host of Psithyrus vestalis, which resembles it very closely in colour; it is this species that was exhibited by Mr. Sladen at the Maidstone Agricultural Hall (p. 41). Fig. 30. Bombus lapidarius L.: another common Humble Bee, also an underground builder; it is the host of Psithyrus rupestris. Fig. 31. Psithyrus rupestris F.: female; the cuckoo of Bombus lapidarius, which it closely resembles except for the nearly black colour of the wings. THE SUBJECT IN GENERAL I think I ought here to say why I propose to limit myself to an account of a certain portion only of the Hymenoptera. The reason for this, in the first place, is that the section which I have selected is the only one of which I have any special knowledge; it consists of the bees, wasps, ants and sandwasps, four groups which make up the stinging section of the order—or perhaps more accurately, which have poison bags connected with their egg-laying apparatus or ovipositor. Another reason for their selection lies in their nesting habits; these enable one to get a further insight into their economy and ways than can be obtained from those of almost any other group or order—at any rate they make them comparatively easy to study; one can, so to say, find these little creatures at home, whereas in most orders there seems to be no definite home to which the individuals may be traced; a great advantage also in selecting the stinging groups for study is that they are creatures of the spring and summer, and of the sunshine, so that the weather which tempts them out to their duties is of the kind most agreeable to those who wish to investigate their habits. The habits of the hive bee have not been touched on, as so many excellent treatises have been written on them that any observations here would be superfluous. Although these groups are distinguished by their stinging habits, it is only the female that possesses a sting—the male is a most harmless creature and quite incapable of injuring any one. A male wasp or even a male hornet may be handled with absolute impunity, only it is wise to be certain as to the sex of the individual before presuming to play with it too much! A word here may perhaps be said about stinging. People often talk about a gnat stinging or a stinging fly; it may be difficult to define exactly what "to sting" means, but the writer has always considered that a sting is inflicted by the tail end of the creature or a bite by the mouth. A fly or gnat no doubt inserts its proboscis into one's flesh just as a wasp does its sting; but the actions of such opposite parts of the body surely demand distinct names. As we have been {xiii} {1} {2} {3} alluding to flies it may not be inappropriate to say here that all the creatures we are going to consider have four membranous wings except the worker ants and a very few forms which are comparatively seldom met with. By this character they may at once be known from flies, which have only two membranous wings. The large brown "drone flies", so often seen on the windows of our rooms, especially in autumn, and which most people mistake for hive bees, to which they certainly bear a considerable general resemblance, may be detected at once by wanting the two hind wings of the bee. The "aculeate", or stinging, Hymenoptera, are divided into sections and families according to their structure; but the groups which stand out most clearly in regard to their habits are the solitary and social species, the predaceous and non-predaceous and the inquilines or cuckoos. The vast majority of the aculeate Hymenoptera are what are called "solitary", i.e. one male and one female alone are interested in the production of the nest; but there are also three "social" groups—the ants, the true wasps, and the humble and hive bees. These are called social because they form communities and all work together towards the maintenance of the nest. In the social species there are two forms of the females—the queens and the workers; these latter have the ovaries imperfectly developed, and in the humble bees and wasps they only differ outwardly from the fully developed females or queens by being smaller. In the ants, however, the workers are wingless, and of a very different form from that of the queen. The rôle of these workers seems to be to do the general work of the nest; they have been known to lay fertile eggs, but the resulting offspring has always been male. Between these conditions of solitary and social we know of no actually intermediate stages. We do not seem to see any attempts on the part of solitary bees to become social or vice versâ. The only condition known which could possibly be considered as intermediate is shown in certain species where a number of individuals make their nests close to each other in some particular bank, forming a colony. These colonies are sometimes very extensive, and the burrows of the individual bees very close together; it has also been shown that the burrows sometimes unite—at the same time there seems to be no positive evidence that there is any work done in the colony which could be considered as done for the common good. THE SOLITARY GROUPS All the solitary kinds appear to feed themselves on vegetable juices, honey, etc., but there is a well-marked division between those who provision the cells of their offspring with insects, either fully developed or in the larval stages, and those who provision them with the pollen of flowers, honey, etc. The theory is that originally all fed their cells with insects, but that by degrees the more progressive found that the food which suited themselves would equally nourish their offspring, and accordingly provided them with vegetable nourishment. We find no intermediate stages. A certain class still goes on feeding on the old principle. The members of this class are known as "fossors" or diggers, while those which feed on the new principle are called "Anthophila" or flower-lovers. These are not very happy names, as many of the Anthophila dig out holes for their nests just in the same way as the fossors do, and many of the fossors are found in flowers, apparently enjoying them just as much as a truly anthophilous species would, although no doubt often with the ulterior object of capturing some insect for their young! Still these names are known as representing these two sections all over the world, and therefore it is better to keep to them even if they are not as descriptive as one would like them to be. The fossors, or "diggers", have all comparatively short and bifid tongues, and have, as a rule, little in the way of hairy covering, and what hairs they have are simple and only in very rare instances branched or feather-like. The hind legs of the females are not modified in any way so as to enable them to collect pollen, their legs are usually long and slender, and they are admirably adapted to their life habits of hunting spiders, insects, etc., for their young. On the other hand, the Anthophila or "flower-lovers", are specially adapted for pollen collecting. Their tongues vary from a short form like that of some fossors to the long tongues of the humble bees. Their hairs are always plumose or branched on some part of the body and the hind legs of the females in most species are provided on the tibia or shin with a special brush on which pollen may be collected. In some of the long-tongued bees, however, this brush occurs on the underside of the body instead of on the tibia. The pollen-collecting arrangements of the different genera of the Anthophila and the corresponding organs for cleaning off the pollen again are amongst the most interesting instances of modification and adaptation: some of the more striking of these will be mentioned later on. (See pp. 65 sqq.) THE SOLITARY BEES The life-history of an ordinary pair of solitary bees is, roughly, as follows: I will take for an example one of the spring species of Andrena. Many people know the little red bee, which for some apparently unaccountable reason suddenly appears in myriads on their lawn or gravel path, throwing up little mounds of finely powdered earth—in this respect {4} {5} {6} {7} {8} {9} Fig 1. Bombus Fig. 1. Bombus, larva and nymph: after Packard. being quite different from worm casts, which are formed of wet mould and the particles of which cling together— sometimes causing considerable alarm as to the possible effect on the lawn. These have hatched out from burrows made by their parents in the previous year, the mouths of which have been filled up with earth and therefore are quite invisible till the newly fledged bees gnaw their way out. They, in their turn, are now making fresh burrows for their own broods; possibly they infested some one else's lawn the year before or were only in comparatively small numbers on the lawn under notice and so passed unrecognized. They may safely be left alone, as they never seem to breed many consecutive years in one such locality: probably the treatment of a lawn does not suit them, mowing and rolling upsetting their arrangements. We will now consider these arrangements. The female bee, so soon as she realizes that she is charged with the duty of providing for her future offspring, makes a burrow in the ground, and the earth thrown up from the tunnel forms the little heap which is so observable; this burrow varies in depth from 6 to 12 inches and has short lateral branches; each of these she shapes, more or less, into the form of a cell, provisions it with a small mass of pollen mixed with honey for the maintenance of the larva when hatched, and lays her egg; she then seals up that cell and proceeds to the next, and in this way fills the burrow up until pretty near the surface. The bee caterpillar when hatched is a white grub-like creature which, after devouring the food provided for it, becomes more or less torpid; it then makes its final change of skin, after how long a period is probably uncertain, and appears in the nymph stage. This stage corresponds to the chrysalis of a moth or butterfly, the creature being shortened up and rather more like the perfect insect compacted into the smallest form possible. People are often misled into the idea that the caterpillar forms the chrysalis over its former self, whereas the chrysalis has been all the time forming inside the caterpillar and only shows itself when the final skin is shed; of course some caterpillars spin a cocoon over themselves before they change their skin, but then the true chrysalis is found inside the cocoon. A curious fact connected with the change from the nymph to the perfect insect is that this takes place sometimes as early as August in the year preceding their appearance; so that cells dug up in August may contain fully fledged insects which are not due to appear till April or May of the following year. It is wonderful also how long life can be sustained by these creatures in the "full-fed larva" condition. Some years ago I collected a number of pierced bramble stems in order to breed out some of the small "sandwasps" which nest in them. On opening them in May, when the perfect insects are generally ready to appear, I found that several of the larvæ had rather shrunk up and had not changed into nymphs. These I left in the stems, covering them up again, and they appeared as perfect insects in the May of the following year. The account given of the nesting habits of the above Andrena of our lawns, etc., is more or less true of nearly all the solitary bees. Their methods vary, some burrow in the ground, some in old wood, some in snail shells, some in bramble stems or straws or the hollow stems of various plants, some in holes or crevices in walls, etc., and their methods of building their cells vary exceedingly: all of these are of great interest and some display an ingenuity which is quite surprising. Of these special nesting habits some of the most striking will be mentioned later on. Before leaving these general remarks on the solitary bees the habits of two genera must be specially noticed, as they differ in an essential point from those of the others. These are known to entomologists under the names of Halictus and Sphecodes. In most species of these the males and females of the new brood are not hatched out till after midsummer, and no work is done for the provisioning of new burrows that autumn; but the female, after having undertaken the duties of maternity, hibernates, i.e. goes back into a burrow and lives there till the next spring, the males dying off before the winter. In the spring the ♀ wakes up and does the necessary work for the future brood just as any ordinary spring bee would—but there are no attendant males—the duties of that sex having been performed in the autumn. The larvæ contained in these burrows hatch out after midsummer and therefore never spend a winter in the ground. In this respect they resemble the social bees and wasps, about which more hereafter; in the meanwhile a few words must be said about the cuckoos or inquilines, which are perhaps the most interesting creatures of all. THE CUCKOO BEES These cuckoos live at the expense of their hosts. The mother of the industrial brood makes her cell and provisions it, and lays her egg. The cuckoo bee manages to enter also and lay her egg in the same cell, the usual result being that the cuckoo devours most of the food instead of the rightful offspring, which gradually gets starved and dies, the cuckoo appearing in its place; but there have been cases, how frequent they are is difficult to say, in which both offsprings have emerged. The whole problem of the relationships between host and cuckoo is most interesting. In some cases the cuckoos are so like their hosts that it is difficult to tell one from the other, in others they are so unlike that it is difficult to trace any resemblance between them. There are a great number of different kinds of cuckoos, and most of them select a special host to associate with, and are never found except with that species. There are, however, cases of cuckoos which visit the nests of more than one host, and cases of hosts which are visited by several kinds of cuckoos. In the short-tongued bees, with the exception of Halictus and Sphecodes, the cuckoos are quite unlike their hosts both in form and colour. In the Andrenas (the lawn bee being one of them) the hosts are clothed with reddish, or brown and black, hairs, and are of a more or less stout build (pl. B, 15, 16). The cuckoos are elegant in shape, almost devoid of hairs, and most of {10} {11} {12} {13} {14} {15} them are striped with yellow or brown across the body so that they present a wasp-like appearance (pl. B, 18). Species more unlike one another than host and cuckoo one could hardly imagine; still this stranger seems to get access to the nest of its host without opposition. In a colony of Andrena one may see the cuckoos (which rejoice in the name of Nomada or wanderers) flying about among the females of the industrious bee, and no alarm or concern appears to be felt by the latter. As we go up in the scale of bees, i.e. towards the more specialized, and arrive at those with longer tongues, the cuckoos are found as a rule to resemble their hosts more closely, both in colour and structure, and when we reach the social genus Bombus (i.e. the humble bees) we find the cuckoos so like their hosts (pl. D, 30, 31) that even entomologists of experience mistake one for the other. Apis (the hive bee) has no cuckoo. It seems to be theoretically probable that both cuckoo and host once originated from common parents; this is suggested by the similarity of structure of certain parts of both host and cuckoo, even in cases where they are otherwise most dissimilar. Andrena and Nomada, for instance, which are very unlike, as stated above, agree in both having very feeble stings and in possessing three conspicuous spines on the upper and posterior edge of the orbit of the larva. Also, although Andrena the host has a short tongue, and Nomada, its cuckoo, a long one, the appendages (labial palpi) of the latter's tongue are framed on the same plan as those of the tongue of Andrena, and are quite unlike those of the other long- tongued bees. On the other hand, the cuckoos of the social species resemble them so closely in structure as well as appearance that it is more necessary to search for points of difference than of similarity. There is only one case known of a cuckoo wasp, and that resembles its host even more closely than do the cuckoos of the humble bees. All these points certainly suggest the probability that the social bees and wasps and their cuckoos adopted different habits at a much more recent date than the solitary species, and therefore have not had so much time to become differentiated in structure. The only short-tongued bees which have cuckoos of similar structure are the species of Halictus (pl. B, 12); their cuckoos, Sphecodes (pl. B, 11), are closely allied to them, but then Halictus and Sphecodes are most peculiar genera; although short-tongued, their females spend the winter in the earth, as do the social bees and wasps (see p. 13), and they colonize largely, which may prove to be a step towards socialism. THE FOSSORS OR DIGGERS In many respects the insects of this section adopt the same methods as the solitary bees so far as the construction of their nests is concerned, but the food brought home for their offspring is animal instead of vegetable. In order to supply their larvæ with "fresh meat" these little creatures, when they have captured a suitable prey, sting it in such a way that it becomes paralyzed, but does not die; after provisioning a cell with the necessary number of these paralytics, the mother lays her egg on one of them or amongst them, and closes up the cell. In consequence of this wonderful maternal instinct, foresight, or whatever the faculty may be, the larva when hatched finds fresh food ready for consumption. The various species provision their nests with different kinds of foods, and some appear to be most fastidious in their selection, and are said never to err in choosing species of some particular family, thereby displaying a discernment worthy of any advanced entomologist. Some provision their cells with beetles, some with grasshoppers, others with spiders, caterpillars, plant lice, etc. The strength possessed by the female fossor must be proportionately enormous, as she can bring back to her burrow, after paralyzing them, insects many times her own size. It is a most interesting sight to see the excitement and flurry of the captor as it tries to drag along some huge prey to its nest. I remember seeing one dragging along a good-sized caterpillar, of a noctuid moth, over rather rough ground: the poor creature had a difficult job; it had to go backwards itself, and pull the body of the caterpillar, after it—its behaviour was very much like that of an ant which has a large burden; at times it would loose its hold of it and try it from some other quarter; however, by degrees, by pulling and tugging, the prey was safely brought home, but the force expended must have been very great. Many species, however, hunt insects of much smaller size than themselves, and it is those which take a fancy to grasshoppers and caterpillars which seem to be the most doughty in deeds of force. One, a very rare kind in this country, sets its affection especially on the honey bee as a prey; the two insects are about equal in size, but the hive bee must be a dangerous foe to attack, and one would have thought as likely to sting its captor as its captor would be to sting it; also one would imagine that a hive bee, unless thoroughly paralyzed, would be a dangerous subject for a juvenile larva to commence making a meal upon! but whether the venture ever turns out unsatisfactorily there are no data to show, so far as I am aware. The larvæ must vary very much in their tastes; one can imagine that a nice juicy caterpillar, or even a good fat grasshopper, may be appetizing and easily assimilated, but one can equally fancy that the larvæ, who wake up to find their food consisting of small hard beetles, may feel more or less resentment against their parents' ideas of dainties for the young! Still they seem to thrive on it, and come out eventually as exact likenesses of their parents. A large number of the fossors inhabit dry sandy wastes, such as the dunes along the sea coast at Deal, Lowestoft, etc.; many of these, when they leave their burrows, throw up some sand over the hole so as completely to cover it; how these insects find the spot again after a lengthy chase after spiders or other prey is a marvel; and yet those who have observed carefully say that they come home from long distances with unerring precision. No sense of which we have any knowledge, however accentuated, seems to explain this. To be able to arrive back at a home in an extensive arid sandy plain, where no outward sign indicates its whereabouts, must surely require perception of a different nature from any of those with which we are endowed. Some fossors are subject to the depredations of cuckoos, just as the solitary bees are, but their cuckoos are rarely of aculeate origin. The only ones which I have had any opportunity of studying are the species which nest in bramble stems. The cuckoos which associate with them are some of the smaller jewel flies and Ichneumons: the habits {16} {17} {18} {19} {20} {21} Fig 2. Ammophila Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. of both these differ from those of the aculeate cuckoos, the jewel flies devouring the larva of the aculeate and the Ichneumon laying its eggs in it. The fossors vary exceedingly in size, shape and colour. Our largest species are about an inch long and our smallest about the eighth of an inch, nearly all having the body where it joins the thorax constricted into a very narrow waist; this is sometimes of considerable length. In one genus known to entomologists by the name Ammophila (fig. 2) or "lover of the sand", the waist is practically the longest part of the body, so that looking at one sideways as it flies along, one could almost be deceived into thinking that there were two insects, one following the other (cf. pl. A, fig. 7). In colour, there seem to be three dominant schemes: Black (cf. pl. B, fig. 17); black with a red band across the body (cf. pl. A, fig. 7); and black banded with yellow, like a wasp (cf. pl. A, figs. 6 and 8, etc.) In some the yellow bands may not be complete, and appear only as spots on each side of the body segments, or the red band may be almost obliterated, or the black species may be more or less variegated with yellow spots on the head and thorax, but as a general rule all our species fall into one or other of these colour schemes. The females of some of our sand frequenting species have beautiful combs on their front feet, each joint of the tarsi having one or more long spines on its external side (figs. 3 and 4). These are of importance to them in their burrowing, as they enable them to move with one kick of their front leg a considerable amount of the dry sand in which they make their nests. Although sandy commons, etc., are the resort of many fossors, others may be found burrowing in wood or in hard pathways or banks; in fact, like most other insects, some of their members may be found almost anywhere. THE SOLITARY WASPS The ordinary wasps are acquaintances of every one, but the solitary or keyhole wasps are not so well known, although they are far from uncommon. They are little narrow black insects striped across the body with yellow, belonging to the genus Odynerus (pl. A, 9), and might hardly be recognized as belonging to the same family as the true or social wasps. Still they have considerable powers of stinging, and fold their wings lengthwise when at rest like their larger relatives. I dare say some people may have noticed that a wasp's wing sometimes assumes a narrow straight form, quite unlike what it is when expanded. This is due to the wasp being able to fold its wing lengthwise like a fan. The wasp tribe are, so far as I know, the only stinging Hymenoptera which have this power. They make their nests of mud, etc., in crevices of walls, in banks, in plant stems, and often in most inconvenient places, such as keyholes, etc. Some of the solitary wasps have a very curious habit of making a tubular entrance to their hole. These may sometimes be seen projecting from sandy banks. The tube is composed of a series of little pellets of mud, which the wasp by degrees, with the help of its mouth secretions, sticks together till a sort of openwork curved tube of sometimes an inch long is formed (fig. 5). This curve is directed downwards, so that the wasp has to creep up it before reaching the actual orifice of the nest. It looks as if the first shower of rain would wash the whole structure away, and I have very little doubt that it often does so. The object of these tubes is difficult to appreciate. There is a bee on the continent which makes straight chimneys above its holes, so as to raise the entrance above the surrounding herbage; possibly these solitary wasps once required their tubes also for some such purpose, and have continued on truly conservative lines to build them long after all usefulness has passed away from the habit; anyhow they are very interesting and beautiful structures. I have found the tubes of one of our rarer species projecting perpendicularly out of the level sand, but even then the tubes were curved over at the end, so that the wasp had to go up and down again before entering its actual hole. The Rev. F. D. Morice in 1906 found the tubes of the same species in numbers projecting from the walls of an old stuccoed cottage situated close to the locality where I found mine, so it is evident that more than one situation suits its requirements. The solitary wasps provision their cells with caterpillars, stinging them in the same way as the fossors do. One very peculiar genus, of one species only in this country, has its body much narrowed at the waist by reason of the constricted form of the basal segment; it makes a little round nest of clay which it suspends from a twig of heather or other plant. This species is rarely met with except on the heathery commons of Surrey, Hants, Dorset, etc. The solitary wasps are subject to the attacks of cuckoos belonging to the jewel fly or Chrysis tribe; these behave differently from those belonging to the aculeate groups, as their larvæ do not eat the food laid up for the wasp, but wait till the wasp larva has finished feeding up, and then devour it. Unlike as these cuckoos are to their hosts in their brilliant metallic coloration, etc., they have structural characters curiously like theirs, so that even here a common parentage in bygone generations may be reasonably suspected. At present, however, they are placed, except by a few systematists, in quite distinct families of the Hymenoptera. In general form these solitary wasps resemble the fossors more than the bees; they have mostly short tongues (I think all our British ones have), and their hairs are simple or more or less spirally twisted. THE SOCIAL GROUPS The social bees are certainly the most highly specialized of the Anthophila, and the social wasps of the Diploptera or insects with folded wings. The ants occupy a less definite position: they would seem to be the outcome of specialization among the fossors, only they feed their young with vegetable juices and not with animal as the latter do. They are always {22} {23} {24} {25} {26} {27} {28} Fig 6. Basal segments of ants Fig. 6 kept as a separate tribe under the name Heterogyna, but for our purposes the better known word "ant" will suffice. The hive bee and the social wasps are the only British Hymenoptera which adopt the hexagonal cell-formation in their nests, the bee fashioning its cells in wax, the wasps and hornet in masticated wood or paper. The formation of ants' nests is far less regular, being composed of irregular passages, called galleries, and open spaces, no doubt built on a plan, but probably in respect of plan no two nests are exactly alike. The humble bees again differ from either in their nesting habits: the female in the spring seeks out a mouse's nest or other suitable foundation of moss, etc., in or on the surface of the ground, according to the species. This she lines with wax, deposits a heap of pollen, and lays her eggs in it. She also makes waxen cells for honey, but these are not hexagonal and symmetrical as are those of the hive bee, but are more like little pots, and are known as "honey pots". It must be borne in mind that the economic arrangements of the wasps and humble bees only last for a single season, whereas those of the ant and hive bee exist for many years. In consequence of this the swarming habits belong exclusively to the ants and hive bee. That of the hive bee is well known to all, and most people must have observed the swarms of male and female ants which fill the air on some sultry summer or autumn evening. Thousands of these must perish, but a certain number of the females accept the responsibility of starting a fresh nest, and so the ant population is kept up. It will be seen from these remarks that the three social groups are very distinct in their methods of nest making, and have really very little in common except the social habit. The humble bees have their cuckoos; one species of wasp has a cuckoo, and there is a possible case of a cuckoo amongst the continental ants, but this has not yet been observed in this country. The ants harbour so many species of insects in their nests besides their own family that it is difficult to form an idea as to whether the case in question is at all analogous to that of host and cuckoo in the other aculeates or not. THE ANTS These little creatures are probably the most intelligent of all the insects—and yet at times they seem to wander about almost aimlessly. A worker may be found with an insect or something which it is eagerly dragging along and drops probably from fear. It appears anxious to regain its hold of it, but goes about in all sorts of wrong directions before it again finds it, it may be to make sure its enemy is clear away before it resumes operations, but the effect to the ordinary onlooker is one of sheer incapacity—at the same time the wonderful habits of the tribe, the way in which they keep plant lice for their larvæ, their methods of carrying each other, their nest-building, and the slave-making instincts of some of the species, show an intelligence surpassed by no other family of insects. Their nests are formed in very various ways: the same species even will sometimes nest under a stone and sometimes make ant hills; some of the large species make their nests of huge heaps of fir needles, and number 400 to 500 thousand in one nest—others live in quite small communities, nesting in bramble stems, old rotten wood, moss, etc. One little species, rare with us, lives in the walls of other ants' nests, just as mice live in the walls of our houses; another quite small species lives apparently on friendly terms with the common large red or horse ant, and may be found running about amongst them, on and in their nests, but, so far as I know, nothing is known as to how its young are reared. There is a curious division in the family between the ants that have true stings and those which have not. The large ants of our fir woods can bite and are able to eject poison through the apical opening of the body into the wound they create, but these as well as the larger and smaller black ants and some others have the sting undeveloped, whereas some of our small species have a sting which they can use with considerable effect; this difference in habit is accompanied by a difference in the structure in the basal segments of the body. In the stingless species the basal segment is reduced to a flat upright transverse scale (fig. 6, 1); in the stinging ants two segments at the base are reduced to nodes (fig. 6, 3). There is an exception in the case of one little rare genus, Ponera, which has only the basal abdominal segment reduced to a scale although a much thicker scale than in the others (fig. 6, 2), and yet which has a distinct sting. These arrangements give the body very free movement so that the tail can be bent forward till it reaches the head. Another curious distinction between the stingers and non-stingers is that the larvæ of the former spin cocoons and those of the latter do not; the larvæ of Formica fusca occasionally do not do so, but they are an exception to the rule. Cocoon spinning seems to involve the larvæ in some difficulties, as without the help of the worker ants they are often unable to extract themselves from their prison. This is a condition which does not, I believe, exist in other groups. In the stingless ants there is a curious difference in habit between the species of the genus Formica, where, according to Forel, the workers do not follow in line over unknown ground, and frequently carry one another, the one carried being rolled up under the head of the other, and the species of Lasius, where the workers follow one another in line, but never carry each other. Among the stinging ants another method of carrying occurs in certain genera. The porter seizes the one she wishes to carry by the external edge of one of her mandibles and then throws her over her back, so that she lies along the back of her porter with her ventral aspect uppermost and her legs and antennæ folded as in the nymph state. Neither of these methods sounds very comfortable, but then probably an ant's idea of comfort and our own may be very different. Lord Avebury, in his Ants, Bees and Wasps, tells us that he has known a male of Myrmica ruginodis live for nine months, although no doubt, as he says, they generally die almost immediately, and he has known queen ants to live for seven years, and workers, which he had in his nest, for six years. {29} {30} {31} {32} {33} {34} THE SOCIAL WASPS Of these we have only seven different kinds, and with the exception of the hornet they are all very much alike. One often hears people say that they have seen such a large wasp that they think it must have been a hornet, but no one who has ever seen a hornet could mistake a wasp for one. A hornet is red-brown with yellow markings (pl. B, 13), a wasp is black and yellow, and altogether a less formidable-looking creature (pl. B, 14). Even a queen wasp is not so large as a small worker hornet. The hornet nests in hollow trees, our three commoner wasps nest, as a rule, in the ground, but occasionally in outhouses, under roofs, etc. One of the others as a rule makes its nest in shrubs, but occasionally in the ground, another always nests in a bush or shrub, preferring a gooseberry or currant bush, and the only remaining one is a cuckoo of one of the ground species. The gooseberry-bush wasp is not a common species in the south, but in the midlands and north it is abundant. Wasps will eat most things, but are especially fond of syrups and sweets. One species, Vespa sylvestris, which seldom enters our houses, is very partial to the flowers of Scrophularia (Figwort). One rarely finds a plant of this in full blossom without finding its attendant wasps. I have seen other species of wasps also visiting it, but sylvestris is practically sure to be there. The diet which wasps provide for their larvæ is probably a mixed one, but consists largely of insects. Dr. Ormerod says that a microscopic examination of the contents of a larval stomach shows "the mass to consist of scales, hairs and other fragments of insects, hairs of vegetables and other substances less easy of recognition." Plate B Plate B. 10. Colletes succinctus, female. 11. Sphecodes subquadratus, female. 12. Halictus leucozonius, female. 13. Vespa crabro, female. 14. Vespa vulgaris, female. 15. Andrena fulva, male. 16. Andrena fulva, female. 17. Panurgus banksianus, female. 18. Nomada ruficornis, var. signata, female. 19. Epeolus rufipes, female. [face p. 36. Wasps do not store honey in their nest; the papery nature of their cells would make such storage impossible. I dare say some of my readers will have noticed wasps sitting in the sun on a wooden paling busily engaged apparently eating something—they are really pulling off little fibres of wood which they chew up into a substance fitted for the walls of their cells; they will also chew paper, and the experiment has been tried of giving them coloured papers, which resulted in stripes of colour appearing in their nests. The different species vary somewhat in the architecture of their nests; but they are built very much on the same general plan. The population of some underground nests is very large. The Rev. G. A. Crawshay estimated the number in a large nest of Vespa vulgaris, which he took on September 20, 1904, at about 12,000; of these he actually counted, including eggs and larvæ, 11,370, and estimated the rest as having left the nest and escaped, so that anyhow the computation cannot be far wrong. This, however, was probably a very large nest. The cuckoo wasp (Vespa austriaca), formerly known as V. arborea, is an associate of Vespa rufa; its habits had been suspected for a long time, but Mr. Robson set all doubts at rest by finding the nymphs of the cuckoo in the actual nest of rufa. It is a rare species in the south, but far from uncommon as one goes north, and also in Ireland, where the relationship of the host and cuckoo have been carefully studied by Prof. Carpenter and Mr. Pack Beresford. Vespa vulgaris has a beetle parasite, but this is somewhat of a rarity. This creature Metœcus paradoxus lays its egg in the cell of the wasp, and enters the body of the larva, eventually entirely devouring it. The hornet also has a beetle associate, but this is a great rarity. It is a large black species of the "Devil's coach horse" or "Cock tail" tribe (Velleius dilatatus), but in what relation it stands to the hornet beyond inhabiting its nest is not known. THE HUMBLE BEES Of these beautiful creatures we have thirteen kinds in this country. Their velvety clothing and bright colours make them the favourites of most people. They are most industrious and may be seen on the wing from early morning often till quite late on summer evenings, whereas the solitary bees do not, as a rule, commence work till nine or ten in the morning, except in very hot weather, and generally retire about four or five p.m. There is an idea prevalent that humble bees do not sting, but this is fallacious. They can sting pretty severely, but I do not think they are so ready to use their defensive weapon as a wasp or hive bee is. The length of the tongue in these creatures makes them of great value to the farmer and gardener, as they can fertilize the red clover and probably other flowers which require a longer tongue to reach the nectary than is possessed by the hive bee. In New Zealand, when first the red clover was introduced from this country, it was found impossible to fertilize it, and humble bees had to be sent out. Now they are established there its fertilization is carried on quite successfully. The humble bees are divided into two natural groups, the underground species, i.e. those that make a subterranean nest, and the carder bees, as they have been called, which make a nest on the surface of the ground. The former live in much larger communities and are far more aggressive and pugnacious than the latter. They also feed their young, according to Mr. F. W. L. Sladen, of Ripple Court, in a different way. The carder bees "form little pockets or pouches of wax at the side of a wax-covered mass of growing larvæ into which the workers drop the pellets of pollen direct from their hind tibiæ. The pollen storers, on the contrary, store the newly gathered pollen in {35} {36} {37} {38} {39} {40} waxen cells, made for the purpose, or in old cocoons, specially set apart to receive it, from which it is taken and given to the larvæ mixed with honey through the mouths of the nurse-bees as required." As the author remarks, the methods of the underground species more resemble those of the hive bee than do those of the carder bees. Mr. Sladen has made many experiments in trying to domesticate humble bees, and succeeded so far with Bombus terrestris (pl. D, 29, our common black and yellow banded species with a tawny tail) as to get it to breed in captivity, and in 1899 was able to show nests in full work at the Maidstone agricultural show, the bees coming in and out of the building to their nest. An interesting case of one of the carder bees (Bombus agrorum) is recorded by F. Smith. It invaded a wren's nest, heaping up its pollen, etc., amongst the eggs of the bird, till the parent bird was forced to desert the nest. The underground species are more subject to the attacks of cuckoos than the carder bees. Altogether the humble bees afford an excellent subject for study, as they appear to be amenable to treatment, and to any one who could give time and careful attention to them many interesting problems connected with them and not yet understood might have light thrown upon them. Dead humble bees are often found in numbers in a mutilated state, under lime trees. These have been caught after they have filled themselves with honey, and become torpid in consequence, by the great tomtit and possibly other birds. The bird pecks a hole in the insect's thorax, enjoys the honey it has eaten and then drops the quivering body which falls to the ground. I once had the opportunity of seeing this slaughter going o...