. The American entomologist. Entomology. THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 133 more than any other group of insects. From .a lot of the kind of mud-cells sketched in Figure KJo, c, we long ago bred great numbers of a mi- nute Chalcis&Y (Fteromalus) only oue-twcntieth of an inch long; and from a lot of those shown in Figure , ri, about a dozen specimens of a beautiful undescribcdIchneumon-fly, about one- third of an inch long, banded with black and white, and with a white horse-shoe ou the hind part of its thorax, to which we liave given the manuscript name of the Horse-shoe Ichneumou- fly (Me
. The American entomologist. Entomology. THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 133 more than any other group of insects. From .a lot of the kind of mud-cells sketched in Figure KJo, c, we long ago bred great numbers of a mi- nute Chalcis&Y (Fteromalus) only oue-twcntieth of an inch long; and from a lot of those shown in Figure , ri, about a dozen specimens of a beautiful undescribcdIchneumon-fly, about one- third of an inch long, banded with black and white, and with a white horse-shoe ou the hind part of its thorax, to which we liave given the manuscript name of the Horse-shoe Ichneumou- fly (Mesostenusfemtm-equinum). It is well known to entomologists that among the solitary Bees—whose habit it is to provision tlieir nests with pollen, and not, after the fashion of the Digger Wasps and solitary True "Wasps, with living insects — there arc many genera, physically incapacitated from collecting pollen, which lay their eggs surreptitiously in the nests of the true pollen-collecting Bees, and thus ap- propriate for their own offspring the rich stores laid up for anotiier's. Not only in the case of the group of Spider Wasps just now referred to (Ayenia), but in that of several other genera of Digger Wasps {Trypoxi/lon, Pe/op(eus and Sapyya), has a similar habit been inferred by several authors to prevail. We suspect that, in these particular cases, erroneous inferences have been drawn from seeing the supposed Guest Wasps entering old year's nests made by true Digger , or by Bees, which nests they afterwards appropriate for their own use, haviug tirst in many instances repaired and re- modeled them. As regards the tirst of the tliree genera enumerated above {Trypoxylon). West- wood has shown this to be so ;* and, at the risk of being tedious, we will give some additional proofs of this and certain other analogous facts, which have been observed by ourselves for a long series of years. Almost every American knows the so-called '• mud-dabs," constru
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectentomology, bookyear1
