Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU An Bee Lab 1-12-1894 The aH bits of the Aculeate Hymenoptera. IV William H. Ashmead Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/bee_lab_an Part of the Entomology Commons Recommended Citation Ashmead, William H., "The aH bits of the Aculeate Hymenoptera. IV" (1894). An. Paper 60. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/bee_lab_an/60 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Bee Lab at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in An by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 18'l'ld PSYCHE. THE HABITS OF THE ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA.-IV. BY WILLIAM H. ASHMEAD, WASHINGTON, D. C. The species in the genus Pompi"ltts Famz"ly XV. VESPIDAE. Packard Fabr., judging from the records, seem to calls this family "one of the higher have a diversity of habits. According families" and includes in it, as sub­ to vVestwood, Pompilus niger Fahr. families, the Masaridae and Eumenidae, in England provisions its cells with placing it near the head of the Aculeata, small Lepidopterous larvae ; Pompz"lus next to the true bees, Anthophila. fumzpennis Zett. with ants, while This position I consider very unnat­ Pompz"lus petz"olattts preys upon ural, as in structure and habits the spiders. Now no doubt this diversity species comprising it are totally dif­ of habits will be fou11d correlated by ferent from the true bees. The prono­ structural differences, which should tum extends b:ick to the tegulae as in be used in separating this extensive the Pompilidae, Sapygidae, Thynnidae, genus into subgenera. In our fauna, Scoliidaeand Mutillidae, and they agree most of our species in this genus, or at with these families in structure, as well least those whose habits are known, as with the fossorial wasps ( except the feed upon spiders. parasite families) in habits. They are Mr. D. W. Coquillett has observed strictly predaceous wasps, insectivorous, rn the vVest Pompilus tenebrosus and have no relation whatever with dragging off S different spiders with the true bees. which to store its cells. i\Ir. Theo. Vespa and Polz"stes feed their young Pergande tells me he ha observed upon the "chewed up fragments of several different species belonging to Lepidopterous and other insects," while the genus Pompilus, in District of the Eumenidae build mud or clay cells Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and which they fill with dead or paralyzed Missouri, carrying off spiders, while I Lepidopterous and Coleopterous larvae have observed the same thing in and possibly other insects, just as do Florida. the Pompilidae. Famz"ly XIV. MASARIDAE. Noth­ The fact that some of them have three ing positively seems to be known sexes should have no weight against respecting the habits of the few genera st, ucture and habits, and it should am! species comprising this family. not influence us in assigning the family All our species are rare and occur in its natural position, which is, in my the \Ve tern States. opinion, next to the family Pompilidae. 76 PSYCHE. The exotic species in the genus cuneata and V. caroli"na. The former Polybia St. Fargeau are said to enclose is known only in the male and neuter their cells by a papery or external cover­ sexes; the latter only in the female sex, ing, but this is not the case with and all of these were taken last fall from Polybia citbensis in Florida. This a single nest by Mrs. McKewen, in Vir­ species builds its papery comb just like ginia. T' Polistes, without a covering, attached These, therefore, should be conjoined to the twig of an orange tree. as one species, under the older name of The habits of the genera Vespa and V. caroli"na Drury. Polistes Latr. are probably known to The parasites of these insects in most of us here and I shall not go very Europe are Crypturus argiolus Gras., particularly or fully into a description Sphecophaga vesparum Curtis, Rhip­ of them now. phorus paradoxus, Diptera Anthomyia The V es pas as we all know were incanum and Volucellae, and Stylops, "The first paper makers," and probably while in America, Euceras burrus Cr., suggested to some of the ancestors of llfesostenus a1-valis and 1Vl. thoracicus the human race the idea of manufac­ Cr., Trigonalys bipustulatus and Sty­ turing this now absolutely necessary lops have been reared from them. commodity. Family XVI. EuMENIDAE. This In our fauna only three genera with is an extensive family and from an forty-five species are known. economic standpoint of the greatest Our most common species in the importance to our farmers and fruit­ genus Vespa Linn. are Vespa maculata growers, very few of whom know any­ Linn., V. germanica Fabr. and V. thing at all of the great benefit they diabolt"ca Sauss. The former usually, are deriving every year from these if not invariably, builds its nest on the brightly marked wasps. They are limb of some tree, or under some old known as "potter-wasps," from the shed; the two latter in an excavation material used in constructing their cells. in the ground or in old stumps; both, All the species prey upon destructive however, and in fact all species in this Lepidopterous and Coleopterous larvae genus, enclose their combs in a globular or caterpillars and as the species are papery covering. For a full account of very numerous they must destroy many these interesting wasps and others thousands <luring the year. The cater­ consult vValsh, Amer. ent., vol. i, pp. pillars, after first being paralyzed with 138-141 ; Packard's Guide, p. 147; and their sting, are then stored up in their Marlatt, Proc. ent. soc., vol. ii, p. So. cells as food for their offspring, from six The different sexes of all of our to a dozen or more being found in each species are not known and some of our cell. species may be nothing but the sexes of The species belonging to the genera other species, as seems to have been Zethus Fabr. and Eumenes Fabr., form proved lately in the case of Vespa globular cells of clay or sand, or sand and ) May 1894.J PSYCHE. 77 mud mixed, which are attached by a a favorite locality. A few even con­ small pedicel to the twig of some shrub struct their cells in an irregular mass or tree. These are filled with larvae, of clay and sand surrounding a twig or a single egg is placed in each cell and plant, which on first sight might be all are hennetrically sealed up by a easily mistaken for a clump of dried cap of clay. The cell of Zethus spz'­ mortar or sand. nipes Say I have taken most frequently All of the 0dyneri store their cells in Florida, atta~hed to the twig of the with Lepidopterous and Coleopterous Iron-tree, while Eumenes fraterna larvae; and sometimes even with Say is usually attached beneath one of Hymenopterous larvae belonging to the the large leaves of the Scrub Palmetto. destructive Saw-fly family Tenthredi­ The latter species, according to Dr. nidae. 0dynerus capra Sauss. was Harris, preys upon the Canker-worm observed by the Rev. T. W. Fyles to in Massachusetts, but in Florida and provision its cells with the larvae of the elsewhere it also preys on other small Larch saw-fly Nematus erz'chsonii'. caterpillars. I have bred from these Indeed, the service of these insects to cells in Florida Rhipiphr>rus dimz'­ the farmer and gardener must be of dz'atus. incalculable value, as they destroy im­ In the south, .Nlonobia quadrz'dens mense numbers of the destructive preys upon large Cut-worms, as I have tineina, geometrina, tortricina, pyralina frequently seen it carrying them into its and noctuina larvae during the season. cells, which were placed in the old bur­ In Florida, I have observed 0. rows of the Carpenter-bee Xylocopa vir­ errinys St. Farg. making its nests in ginica, the sides of which it had reno­ . the lock of my front door and in old vated by a thin veneering of clay and holes in my board fence. I have also then filled with clay cells from the reared it many times from cells con­ bottom upwards. More than one wasp structed in old oak-galls Amphibolz'ps was seen going in and coming out of a clnerea. Nine specimens, varying single burrow and undoubtedly several greatly in size, were reared from a individuals live and work in harmony single gall. 0. alboplzaleratus Sauss. together. has also been bred from the oak-gall It is quite probable that the species Amphz'bolips con.fluens Harris, in in the ge·nus 0dynerus were originally Massachusetts, while 0. fulvipes Sauss. wood-borers and sand-borers, although was observed by Walsh building its now they are less particular in selecting cell in a · spool, certainly a queer and a locality in which to nidificate, the insecure place. The habits of many most insecure and oddest places imagin­ other of our species could be given but able being often selected by them. these will be left for another paper. Many now also appropriate the galleries Many of the 0dyneri are parasitized and cells made by different bees and by species in the family Chrysididae wasps, the old mud-dauber's cells being ;ind a few by two or three Ichneumon ids. l 78 PSYCHE. [May 1&;4. Linoceras j1t11ceus Cr. is the only while, as recorded by Mr. Howard, in ichneumonid reared from them in this The Standard natural history, vol.