INSECTS Trichoptera. Mr. Stephens enumerates the following species : Hydroptila tineoides Mormonia hirta sparsa immaculata Agapetus laniger Leptocerus dissimilis - setiferus seminiger Beraea albipes Molanna nigripalpis Anticyra gracilipes Phryganea grandis ciliaris Halesus digitatus Tinodes luridus latipennis Rhyacophila nebulosa Limnephilus geminus Cyrnus unipunctatus punctatissimus unicolor fuscatus Polycentropus subpunctatus sparsus trimaculatus substrigosus Notodobia atrata Anabolia nervosa Silo pallipes testacea Gofira pilosa Chxtopteryx villosa flavipes brevipennis Hymenoptera. In some parts of Hertfordshire the Honey Bee is a source of considerable revenue to the cottager. Besides the ordinary Black Bee (Apis mellifica] several foreign species have been introduced, the best known being A. ligustica, a rather larger insect with yellow bands, and this hybridizes freely with A. mellifica, producing a strain which though good honey-gatherers are of more uncertain temper and less easily managed. For this reason many beekeepers on detecting the results of a cross of this kind immediately remove the queen bee in order that the old black strain may be reverted to. The social wasps are represented both by the Tree or Wood Wasp (Veipa sylvestris), whose pendent nests are often found of a considerable size, and by those species which construct their nests in the ground. There is in the Hertfordshire County Museum at St. Albans a large nest of V. sylvestris which was taken from a conifer in the grounds of North End House, Watford, and presented to the museum by Mr. Percy Manning. In some seasons wasps of several species are present in great numbers and do a very considerable amount of injury. The wasp infestation of 1893 will be long remembered by fruit-growers on account of the loss they then sustained. Not only were the outdoor crops attacked, but vineries and orchard houses were invaded to a serious extent. This visitation of wasps was dealt with at some length in a paper read before the members of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society. 1 Some interesting facts relating to the hybernation of queen wasps then came under notice. Mr. Richard Shillitoe of Bancroft, Hitchin, reported that in a heap of stones near Ickleford Gatehouse large numbers of queen wasps were found by the roadmen, and at St. Ibbs near Hitchin a quantity estimated at about 2OO were discovered in an old piece of sailcloth on the roof of a shed. The commoner species of ants are present, and Sawflies are a source of trouble in fields and gardens, especially notable in this respect being the ravages committed by the Turnip Sawfly (Athalia spinarum), the Currant Sawfly (Nematus ribesii) and the Slug Worm (Eriocampa limacina). The Great Wood Wasp or Giant Sirex (Sirex gigas) occasionally finds its way into houses and causes alarm, being mistaken for a hornet. The following are the species of Hymenoptera observed by Mr. Stephens near Hert- ford : Cladius morio Selandria adumbrata immunis geniculata Pristiphora duplex atra varipes ovata Nematus bicolor Sciapteryx costalis dimidiatus Dosytheus anticus miliaris hyalinalis pavidus xanthopus ruficornis Dolerus fumosus Croesus septentrionalis (also found at Barnet) palmatus Athalia suessionensis Emphytus cingulatus Selandria hyalina perla testudinea Lyda hortorum 1 Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. viii. p. 22. 169
