Chapter VII: Introduction (5)

_Dielis 7-cincta_, one of our commonest species, often clustering in numbers on flowering shrubs in the gardens, was described by Fabricius, and is the male of _Dielis (Scolia) formosa_ which was not described till 1846 by Guérin. The male, ⅔ of an inch in length, is very slender in form, of a general black colour, clothed with fine grey hairs, and marked with light yellow on the head and thorax, with five broad bands of the same colour on the body. The female, under 1 inch in length, is black, with the abdomen marked on the upper surface with reddish yellow somewhat variable in its distribution, and clothed with reddish brown hairs, thickest on the head and thorax. This insect has been found in Queensland destroying the underground grub of the Sugar-cane Beetle (_Lepidoderma albo-hirtum_).

Family 17. Sand Wasps.

POMPILIDAE.

This group is well represented in Australia, and widely distributed over the country; about 60 species have been described: several collected by Sir Joseph Banks in 1775 were described by Fabricius; Smith, in the Catalogue previously noticed, in a series of papers between 1862–69 in the Transactions of the Entomological Society, other Journals, and a British Museum publication (New Species of Hymenoptera 1879) published after his death, has described most of our species; Saussure in the Hymenoptera of the Reise Novara; and later Kohl has enriched our list.

Large sand-burrowing wasp, that attacks cicadas.

(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]

The typical genera _Pompilus_ and _Salius_ comprise a number of large yellow and black wasps with coloured wings tipped with black. They have long legs well adapted for running over the ground, and may be seen any warm sunny morning hunting about for spiders, with their antennae and wings constantly on the move as they rush about. They will attack the largest spider whether on the ground or hidden in a tree trunk; one large black undetermined species even ventures down the nests of the Trap-door Spiders and drags them forth. Sometimes one of the larger ground spiders shows fight, and it becomes a duel to the death, the wasp now and then being captured by its intended victim. They often place the spider in any suitable cavity with their eggs, but others form extensive burrows in the soil. _Salius (Priocnemus) bicolor_ is one of our largest yellow and black species, often measuring 2 inches across the wings, but variable both in colouration and size. She forms a burrow as large as a mouse hole, several feet in length, with quite a large mound of excavated soil outside the entrance; when emerging from the chamber she looks a most formidable creature, but unless captured never attempts to attack anyone. She sometimes stores her nest with cicadas many times larger than herself, which she rides down to their tomb before they are quite dead. The young larva is usually attached to the cicada’s breast when hatched out; but I have never been able to keep any alive after being dug out of the nest. This wasp has a curious habit of flying round and dragging a cicada off a branch when it is sucking up the sap; taking its place, she calmly stands over the spot and drinks up the sap that exudes from the puncture the dispossessed cicada had made in the bark. The members of the Genus _Pepsis_ are large black wasps with a beautiful metallic lustre on the wings; they are chiefly confined to the tropics, but Saussure has described one species, _P. australis_, from this country.

Family 18. Smaller Sand Wasps.

SPHEGIDAE.

Westwood placed these wasps and the POMPILIDAE in a single family, but Kohl, while separating the latter, has grouped a number that were once ranked as families, under the SPHEGIDAE, calling them simply sub-families, thus making this a much more extensive division, the SPHEGIDAE proper forming only a part of the whole.

Dalla Torre in his Catalogue treats them as a sub-division of the CRABRONIDAE; but Sharp takes Kohl’s classification, which I follow.

The _Sphegides_ are easily distinguished by the peculiar structure of the abdomen; the basal portion is produced into a slender rod-like stalk or pedicle, with the apical part forming a rounded or oval tip; they are very active creatures with the habits of the larger sand wasps.

The world-wide Genus _Ammophila_ is represented in Australia by four described species; they make their nests in sandy ground, digging out a straight burrow with an enlarged chamber at the end, which they store with different kinds of caterpillars they capture on the plants while hunting; these they sting but do not kill, but though paralysed and incapable of motion, remain alive long enough to furnish the baby wasps with a supply of fresh food.

_Ammophila suspiciosa_ is a slender black insect under 1 inch in length; the thickened tip of the abdomen is dull red. This is our common species found all over the western country. _A. instabilis_ is a larger black species with semiopaque wings and reddish legs; the tubular portion of the body and base of the thickened part are reddish brown: this one is a northern form found in Queensland.

_Pelopaeus laetus_ is a very handsome black and yellow wasp with a somewhat similar shaped body tipped with black; it is very variable in size, the largest measuring about 1 inch in length. It has a wide range over Australia, and differs from the former insects in being a regular “mud dauber,” forming a regular clay nest consisting of a number of different cells, each of which is filled with paralysed spiders. It is a very friendly insect, often flying into the room on a summer day; and will build its nest on the edge of a roof or wall.

The typical Genus _Sphex_ contains a number of fine black wasps more or less clothed with silver or golden pubescence on the head and thorax, with the slender pedicle at the base of the thorax very well defined, and the hind portion of the abdomen almost round or oval. They form underground burrows branching out into a chamber at the end, in which they store all kinds of different insects, each species seeming to have a preference for its particular choice. _Sphex vestita_, one of our largest species, has the face thickly clothed with silvery pubescence; it is often common in sandy patches in gardens, where it hunts for small orthopterous insects, and is particularly fond of a species of small brown cricket which lives in the long grass. _S. opulenta_ is a smaller species about ¾ of an inch in length, with the face and back of the thorax bright silver, and the dorsal surface of the latter coppery. About 30 species are described from Australia, some of which have a very wide range over the interior.

The LARRIDES are medium sized black wasps with the abdomen not stalked, but coming to a point at the junction with the thorax, and often ornamented with golden or silvery pubescence forming bands on the body.

Shuckard described a number of our species belonging to the Genus _Pison_ (Trans. Ent. Society 1837–40), where he gives some account of the group. Smith in the same Transactions, 1869, catalogued those previously described, and added a number of new species; and also added the Genus _Parapison_, containing species from India, Ceylon and Australia. The European _Tachytes_, which Westwood says are captured in sand banks, are represented here by three species, all shining black insects about ½ an inch in length. Saussure (1855), and Kohl later have described others.

_Pison spinolae_ and _P. decipiens_ are both black wasps with silvery bands upon the sides of the abdomen; the latter are the smaller. They are both common about Sydney, and have a very wide range over the country; they are very fearless insects, flying into the house, and wherever they come upon a convenient hole in the rung of a chair, or even a key hole, will set to work and line it with clay, forming an irregular chamber, which they store with small spiders, deposit the egg, and after closing it up fly away quite satisfied. Sometimes they form a row of round clay cells on a coat or other garment hanging on a wall.

The NYSSONIDES comprise a smaller group of closely allied forms, differing chiefly in the venation of the wings. Smith has described most of our species. The members of the Genus _Gorytes_ are represented by five described species; all small, active, bee-like insects with coppery fasciae upon the abdomen; several of these are known in the bush as “policemen flies” from their habit of coming round and catching flies upon one’s clothes and even snapping one off the back of one’s hand; these flies are killed with their stout jaws and deposited in their nests constructed in the ground.

The curious, large, reddish brown wasp, _Stizus pectoralis_, from Queensland, at first sight might be taken for a _Thynnus_, but the distinct form of the body, and the antennae thickened toward the tips, show that it could not belong to the flower wasps. It is now placed in the allied Genus _Sphecius_.

The PHILANTHIDES are easily distinguished from the other groups by the curious rugose or punctured integument which makes them look as though coated with armour plate, and the curious constrictions or rings between the abdominal segments, becoming smallest toward the tip. They are generally black or reddish brown, marked with pale yellow spots and bands. With the exception of one species of the Genus _Philanthus_ all ours have been placed in the world-wide Genus _Cerceris_. I have generally captured them about flowers, or flying round bushes infested with scale insects that were throwing off honey dew, which sweet secretion has a great attraction for small hymenoptera of many different families. Eight species are described by Smith and Saussure; there are probably many new species to be recorded. Nothing is known about their habits in this country, but the European species form nests in the ground, which they provision with small beetles; and each species is said to confine its attention to a different group of beetles; one uses only small weevils; another carries off chrysomalids, and so on with each species.

The CRABRONIDES are another small group, and under the present classification all our species have been placed by Smith in the world-wide Genus _Crabro_. They are medium sized black wasps with broad stout heads and unstalked bodies, generally banded with orange, red, or yellow; they form burrows in the stems of plants, which they store with captured flies. Five species have been described from Australia and Tasmania.

The BEMBECIDES are very handsome, smooth, shining wasps of fair size, with broad bodies, rounded and broadly pointed at the extremity. They are generally met with along sandy pathways and roads, flitting along in front of one, settling on the ground and rising again, so that they are easily captured with a net. They make shallow burrows on the roadside in which they place flies, which they capture with their powerful jaws.

Nearly all our species have been described by Smith in the British Museum Catalogue Hymenoptera 1856, and the Annals and Magazine of Natural History 1873. Under 20 species are recorded from Australia. _Bembex tridentifera_ was described by Smith from Moreton Bay, Queensland, but it has a wide range southwards to Victoria. It measures just under ¾ of an inch in length; is of a general black colour; the face yellow with a black trident-like mark above and two black spots below the antennae; the legs yellow lightly marked with black; the upper surface of the thorax spotted and barred with yellow, and the abdomen beautifully banded with irregular white bands on the 2nd to 4th segments, with the first and last only marked on the sides. _B. vespiformis_ ranges from West Australia to S. Australia, is somewhat smaller than the last, and viewed from above is black, with very faint markings on the thorax, and a broad white band on either side of the first segment of the abdomen almost meeting on the back.

DIPLOPTERA.

The true wasps have the antennae generally elbowed and thickened toward the tips, and the eyes notched. They have the wings folded like a fan in repose, but can fly well, and have legs and feet adapted for walking. Some species are solitary in their habits, and consist of males and females only; others live in large communities, and, like the ants, comprise males, females, and workers, the latter aborted females.

Family 19. Solitary Wasps.

EUMENIDAE.

This group is well represented in Australia; they are well known to residents in the country from their habit of constructing clay nests under the shelter of the verandah or the eaves of the houses. They usually appear in pairs, and rapidly build up the structure, flying backward and forward with their earthen loads; from this habit they get the name of “Mud Daubers” in America, and “Mason Wasps” in this country. A number of our species are described and figured in Saussure’s “Monograph des Guepes Solitaires” published in 1851.

The Genus _Eumenes_ contains a number of very handsome insects that are easily recognised from the basal portion of the abdomen forming a more or less slender stalk, and the apical portion rounded at the junction and tapering to a sharp point at the tip. They build clay nests containing a number of cells, and store them with caterpillars, which they do not appear to be able to paralyse in the same manner as the large sand wasps, for they are capable of movement after they are enclosed in the cell. By some wonderful instinct, the female wasp does not deposit her egg haphazard among the wriggling grubs that would easily damage it, but suspends it by a fine stalk to the roof of the cell in such a manner, that when the little wasp larva hatches out, it can safely reach down and feed upon the nearest caterpillar, until it has finished the last bit, when it spins a thin parchment cocoon and pupates in the cavity which before was its larder.

_Eumenes bicincta_ has a wide range over Australia; it measures about 1 inch in length; the stalk is not quite so long as the base of the abdomen, and is of a uniform deep orange yellow colour, with the top of the head, centre of thorax, and broad band in the middle of the abdomen black. _Eumenes latreillei_, a larger species, has the stalk of the abdomen shorter and thickened, with the basal half of the body from the stalk black. _Eumenes servillei_, the smallest of the three, is more slender in shape, has more black upon the thorax, and the stalked portion of the body is variegated with black. _Eumenes arcuatus_ is a more northern species common in Queensland; it measures over 1 inch in length, and is the only one with blackish wings; it has a very long slender stalked abdomen. It is black, mottled on the head and thorax with yellow; and the abdominal segments are barred on either side with yellow, which appear to form regular slender bands across, but do not actually meet in the centre.

Two of our handsomest mason wasps belonging to the Genus _Abispa_ measure 1 inch in length, but are so stout in form that they appear much larger; they are black and deep orange yellow, with dull yellow wings tipped with black, and the stout broad thorax fits close against the base of the abdomen. _Abispa splendida_ has the front half of the first abdominal segment black, with the hind portion yellow, while in _Abispa ephippium_ the whole of the first abdominal segment is yellow. They both build very large, solid, clay nests generally containing two rows of cells, about 6 in number, above each other, with thick partitions between them; the outer surface is rounded on the sides; each cell is stored with caterpillars upon which the larva feeds, and finally pupates in a reddish brown parchment-like cocoon.

The Genus _Rhynchium_ comprises about six described species, handsome insects not unlike the former in general form, but with the abdomen more tapering. _Rhynchium mirabile_ measures ¾ of an inch in length; it is of a general black colour, the head marked with, and collar of thorax, yellow; and the hind margin of the abdominal segments is ringed with slender bands of orange yellow. _Rhynchium superbum_ is a smaller insect of similar form and colour, with the basal half of the abdomen black and the hind portion rich yellow. Both these species come from Queensland.

The Genus _Odynerus_ contains a great number of small thickset wasps, that make clay nests of various shapes, sometimes very delicate in structure, forming a finger-shaped row of clay cells or rounded cup-shaped chambers; while some species make use of a hole in the wood or wall and simply coat it over with clay. Australia is rich in species, some of which have a very wide range. _Odynerus bicolor_, one of our commonest species, is black, with the collar of the thorax, legs, and all the abdomen except the basal segment, dull reddish yellow. _Odynerus nigro-cinctus_ is of a general dark orange yellow colour, with the head and centre of abdomen black. The closely allied species forming the Genus _Alastor_ differ slightly in the venation of the wings, but their habits are identical; about 30 species have been described from Australia, chiefly by Saussure, some of which are figured in colours in his Monograph. These wasps may be captured round water-holes in the summer months, and may sometimes be found resting upon grass stalks in the early morning.

Family 20. Social or Paper-nest Wasps.

VESPIDAE.

These typical wasps are found all over the world, and next to the bees have probably received more attention from the casual observer than most of the other groups. Each community consists of males, females, and workers, and though the structure of their nests differs considerably in the various groups, the social economy is the same. The female first starting the nest constructs a stout stalk at the apex attached to a twig or roof, and constructs a six-sided cell from which the whole mushroom-shaped nest is built. In each little cell she deposits an egg from which the legless white grub emerges, attaches itself to the roof of the cell and hangs head downward, being fed by the mother wasp until full grown with food chiefly composed of masticated spiders, when it pupates under a silken cover spun over the apex of the cell. As soon as it emerges it sets to work to help on the nest, so that the community rapidly increases in numbers. The nest of _Polistes tasmaniensis_ sometimes measures six inches in diameter. Some confusion as to the identity of this species and _P. variabilis_ seems to exist, but from Saussure’s description, our common species appears to be _P. tasmaniensis_.

Family VESPIDAE.

1 & 5. Nests of _Polistes tasmaniensis_.
2. _Icaria gregaria_ (Sauss.).
3. Slender nest typical of Genus _Icaria_.
4. _Polistes tasmaniensis_ (Sauss.).

(Original photo. Burton.)]

The widespread Genus _Vespa_, though it is recorded from as far down as Java, is unknown in Australia. We have however allied species belonging to the genera _Icaria_ and _Polistes_. Those of the genus _Icaria_ are the smaller wasps, the largest well under ½ an inch in length; most of them are reddish brown, or mottled with black and yellow; the abdomen is contracted into a stalk at the base, then becomes rounded, with the apical segments small and telescopic, so that when retracted it looks as if it were damaged. They all form similar nests commencing with the usual stalk, but, unlike the larger _Polistes_, the cells follow on in rows, forming finger-like nests. _Icaria gregaria_, our commonest species, forms these slender nests up to six inches in length. It is a dull reddish brown wasp mottled with black on the thorax and legs, with the apex of the abdomen lightest in colour.

Some of the members of the Genus _Polistes_ grow to a considerable size, and armed with a powerful sting are very formidable insects; several of the largest form small stalked nests on the under-side of fallen logs; when hunting for insects and turning over dead wood one is liable to disturb a family party and find it wise to beat a hasty retreat. They differ from the previous group in having no stalk to the abdomen, which is very slender at the base, rounded to the middle and tapers to a pointed apex. _Polistes tasmaniensis_, our most sociable species, is very fond of building her large nest (previously noticed) under one’s verandah, or the porch over the door, and is quite ready to attack any one when disturbed. It is one of the smallest species, measuring under ¾ of an inch in length; is of a general dark brown colour marked with reddish brown; the abdomen is irregularly banded, with the first basal band finest. _Polistes tepidus_, one of our largest wasps, is almost black, with face, tips of legs, and thorax marked with dark orange yellow, and the abdomen banded with rusty red. _Polistes humilis_ is of an almost uniform yellowish brown tint, with the face marked with black. In the Queensland Museum there are some very large paper-nests of some undetermined wasps that have a regular comb-like structure containing thousands of cells, and which are several feet in length.

Family 21. Shining Wasps.

MASARIDAE.

These curious wasps stand quite alone as the last group of the true Vespidae, and are a comparatively small family, comprising several distinctive genera containing altogether sixty species found in the Mediterranean region, South and North America, and Australia.

They are wasp-like in waist, with the antennae thickened toward the tips or clubbed; the wings contain two sub-marginal cells; and the feet are furnished with curious toothed or rather hooked claws. The European species are known to build nests in the ground, forming a tunnel ending in a clay cell in which the larvae live and are fed by the mother in the same manner as the true wasps forming the papery nests; others construct clay chambers attached to twigs.

Shuckard when he formed the typical Australian Genus _Paragia_ named it “in allusion to its deceptive habit, which is precisely that of a Vespa.” Saussure wrote a monograph on the Masaridae forming the third part of the Vespidae published in 1856; Smith has also contributed to our knowledge of Australian species in the British Museum Catalogue 1857, and subsequently in several papers in the Entomological Society of London between 1864–1869.

Seventeen species have been described in the Genus _Paragia_, but nothing has been recorded about their habits or life history: several are described from Tasmania and New South Wales, but all the specimens in my collection come from the northern part of Australia.

_Paragia decipiens_ was described and figured by Shuckard in the Transactions of the Entomological Society, 1837; it measures under ¾ of an inch in length, and is of a general black colour, with the front and sides of the thorax spotted with yellow, and the whole of the smooth rounded abdomen of the same bright colour except the base, which is black; the wings are smoky brown, with the nervures black. _Paragia bicolor_ is a larger insect measuring nearly 1 inch in length; the head and thorax are black, and the abdomen bright metallic blue; the under surface and sides of the first three segments, and the base of the thorax, are marked with bright yellow.

Family 22. Bees.

ANTHOPHILA or APIDAE.

The Australian region is rich in bees peculiar to the country; and while we have representatives of many of the foreign groups, yet several well-known genera, such as _Apis_, _Bombus_, _Eucera_, _Colletes_ and _Osmia_, though ranging over the greater part of the world, are unknown in Australia.

The classification of the bees is still somewhat unsatisfactory. Latreille termed them MELLIFERA, honey gatherers, or ANTHOPHILA, lovers of flowers: Westwood and others, while keeping this as a group name, subdivided them into two large families, ANDRENIDAE, short-tongued bees, and APIDAE, long-tongued bees, dividing the last family into five smaller groups based upon their different structure and habits. The European bees have been since placed under six headings; while in Dalla Torre’s Catalogue dealing with the bees of the whole world, there are no less than fourteen sub-families. Most of our species have been described by Smith, in the British Museum Catalogue, Hymenoptera 1853; others in the Transactions of the Entomological Society 1862–68, and New Species, British Museum 1879. Cockerell (Ann. & Mag. Nat. History 1905) described a number of new species of our bees examined by him in the British Museum Collections, and added some interesting information on species already described; as many of these specimens were collected by Turner, Walker, and myself and sent to the British Museum, the Australian localities are given.

None of the short-tongued bees store up honey, but form cells or burrows in the ground, walls, cavities in rocks, or the stems of plants, in which they form a row of cells or little chambers each containing an egg and sufficient bee bread for the development of the larva. Some of these bees are parasitic, and live at the expense of the industrious species, crawling into the open nests and laying their eggs upon the food supply of the rightful occupant; these are popularly known as “cuckoo bees.”

The members of the Genus _Prosopis_ are handsome, shining black or steel blue bees, marked with bright yellow upon the face and thorax. With the additions that Cockerell has made to the list, nearly fifty species are described from Australia, and a number are common in the vicinity of Sydney. _Prosopis vidua_, our largest species, but considerably smaller than the honey bee, is found upon the crimson flowers of the bottlebrush (_Callistemon_). It has the head and thorax black, with a yellow spot on the face and the base of each fore wing; the abdomen is bright metallic blue. A smaller undetermined species may be often noticed hovering round and entering holes in the soft sandstone rocks where it appears to nest. _Prosopis metallica_, a shining black species, smaller than _P. vidua_, with face and shoulders broadly marked with yellow, was bred out of a row of half a dozen brown papery cocoons placed in an empty burrow formed in the branch of a wattle tree by the larva of some longicorn beetle.

_Lamprocolletes plumosus_ and several other species of the genus frequent the flowers of the Leptospermum. It is a handsome dark brown bee, under ½ an inch in length. The abdomen has a metallic sheen, and the head and thorax are clothed with fine down.

_Hylaeoides concinnus_ is a very remarkable looking black bee, with clouded smoky wings, marked with bright red on the face, and with bands of the same colour on the base and tip of the abdomen. I have usually captured this bee upon bushes; it bears such a decided superficial resemblance to a small clay nesting (_Odynerus_) wasp, that this may be a case of protective mimicry. The Genus _Paracolletes_ has been added to by Cockerell, who describes twelve new species in his recent papers. _Paracolletes crassipes_ was described by Smith from W. Australia, but it is common on low scrub in the early part of the year on the Blue Mountains N.S.W. It is a handsome black bee about ½ an inch in length, with the head and thorax thickly clothed with pale buff hairs, and the abdominal segments banded on the upper surface with dull brown.

_Gastropsis (Oestropsis) pubescens_ is nearly as large as a honey bee, with curious thickened antennae, slender at the basal joint. It is somewhat flattened on the upper surface and clothed all over with a dense coat of pale buff coloured hairs, only showing indistinct brown bars on the abdomen. I know nothing about the habits of this curious bee; it has been described from Western and South Australia.

The Genus _Halictus_ is represented by about thirty described species; nothing has been recorded about the habits of our species, but most of the European form galleries in the ground connected with a large excavation or chamber in which the larvae are placed in cells. _Halictus floralis_ is a small bee with a reddish brown body; the front of the head, antennae, legs, front and middle of thorax are light yellow. _H. bicingulatus_ is black with the legs reddish brown, and the segmental divisions of the abdomen light coloured. They are found on grass and field flowers. _Nomia australica_, under ½ an inch in length, is common on the flowers of the _Leptospermum_; it is a dull, metallic blue bee with antennae, labrum, legs, and extreme tip of abdomen reddish brown. The latter has a greenish sheen, and is somewhat heart shaped, terminating in a fine point. Cockerell has added six new species to our list, most of which are described from Queensland.

_Exoneura froggatti_ is a little bee not much over ¼ of an inch in length, black with smoky rings, reddish legs and a curiously sack-shaped reddish brown abdomen, broadest near the apex, but contracted to a point at the tip. I have frequently cut them out of small burrows in the dead stems of wattle trees. _Exoneura bicolor_ is a slightly larger species, with a darker, broader abdomen, and it comes from Queensland. Cockerell has added three more new species, all from the neighbourhood of Sydney. The great Carpenter Bees of the Genus _Xylocopa_ are represented by four species, which are more common in Queensland and the northern parts of Australia; but one species at least, _Xylocopa aestuans_, ranges southwards. It is of the typical broad form with dark coloured wings; the upper surface of the thorax is clothed with yellow, other portions with black hairs. _Xylocopa bryorum_ is a larger species measuring about 1 inch in length, with a wing expanse of nearly two; the whole of the upper surface is thickly clothed with golden yellow hairs, the brown beneath giving it a greenish tint. The wings are light brown with black nervures, and the hairs on the legs and under-surface are dark brown to black.

The closely allied Carpenter Bees of the Genus _Lestis_ are peculiar to Australia. The male of _Lestis bombylans_ measures over ½ an inch in length, and is of a rich metallic green, with the front of the face striped with white; the thorax and base of abdomen are clothed with golden hairs, those on the front of the thorax forming a double bar; the hairs on the front pair of legs yellow, those on the hind pair black; the wings are brown with faint iridescence. The female has the face silvery, but no yellow down upon the thorax; the abdomen is deep purple; and the wings almost opaque, varying from dark brown to rich metallic violet colour in different lights. The second species, _Lestis aerata_, is slightly larger, with the stripe on the face of the male yellow, and all the legs fringed with yellow pubescence, while the female is of a uniform brassy green, with wings light coloured, more like those of the males, and only showing a slight iridescence. Both species have a wide range; those about Sydney form their nests in the dead flower stalks of the grass trees (_Xanthorrhoea_). It begins by boring a circular hole 3½ lines in diameter towards the centre, then turns downward, excavating all the pith to a depth of about 4 inches, and then works out about the same distance above the opening, so that the full length of the chamber is 8 inches, with an average of ½ an inch in diameter. This is divided off into a row of cells, each about ½ an inch in length, with a ball of bee bread and an egg deposited in the far end; each cell is separated by a stout wad of triturated pith. I have never found the centre of the chamber in front of the opening closed up with cells, a space always being left unoccupied on both sides. The larvae are of the usual cylindrical form, attenuated at the extremities, and of a dull white colour, about ½ an inch in length, and can be found in all stages of development in November. The pretty banded bees, formerly known under the name of _Anthophora_, but now placed in the Genus _Podalirius_, are world wide in their range. All our species have the head and thorax clothed with a dense coat of buff or pale yellow hairs, and the body banded with black and blue of various tints. _Podalirius emendatus_, our largest species, is found on the northern rivers of N.S. Wales and is common in Queensland; it has the head and thorax covered with rusty red pubescence, and the low abdominal bands broad. _P. cingulatus_ is slightly smaller, with the pubescence pale buff, the abdominal bands much the same; _P. pulcher_, much smaller, with the pubescence darker, is our commonest species about Sydney. _P. aeruginosus_ has the whole of the abdomen as well as the head and thorax thickly clothed with a dull greenish yellow pubescence. My specimens of this species come from Mackay, Queensland. Five new species are added to this genus by Cockerell.

The Genus _Crocisa_ contains a few very handsome moderate sized bees of a uniform black colour with smoky rings, and brightly marked bodies. _Crocisa albo-maculata_, our largest species, has the face, upper and under surface, and legs thickly marked and spotted with white pubescence. It is a somewhat rare insect about Sydney. _C. lamprosoma_ is a smaller bee with the marks and spots pale blue, those upon the abdomen forming a more regular pattern of four well defined rows. In _C. nitidula_ the pubescence forms rich metallic blue spots and blotches, most brilliant on the upper surface of the abdomen, where they run right round the basal segment and form a regular row of short bands on either side but not meeting on the dorsal surface. It is found in New South Wales and Queensland.

Family APIDAE.

1. _Xylocopa aestuans_ (Linn.). ♂.
1. _Xylocopa aestuans_ (Linn.). ♀.
2. _Lestis aeratus_ (Smith). ♀.
2. _Lestis aeratus_ (Smith). ♂.
5. _Crocisa nitidula_ (Fabr.).
6. _Crocisa lamprosoma_ (Boisd.).
7. _Sarapoda bombiformis_ (Smith).
8. _Megachile pictiventris_ (Smith).
9. _Megachile blackburni_ (Froggatt).

Family ANDRENIDAE.

3. _Hyleoides concinna_ (Fabr.). ♀.
10. _Paracolletes crassipes_ (Smith).

Family EUMENIDAE.

4. _Abispa splendida_ (Guérin).
11. _Odynerus nigro-cinctus_ (Saussure).
12. _Rhynchium mirabile_ (Saussure).
14. _Eumenes arcuatus_ (Fabr.).

Family SPHEGIDAE.

13. _Ammophila impatiens_ (Smith).

Family PHILANTHIDAE.

15. _Cerceris sp._

Family VESPIDAE.

16. _Polistes tepidus_ (Fabr.).

(Original photo. Burton.)]

The great Genus _Megachile_ contains the leaf-cutting bees, so called from the curious habit they have of cutting circular pieces out of the leaves of growing plants with which they line their nests; these are sometimes built in excavations in old walls, or dead wood, or simply constructed like a cigar under stones. About 30 species have been described from Australia; the two largest are _Megachile monstrosa_, figured in Brenchley’s “Cruise of the Curaçoa,” published in 1873; and _M. blackburni_, described by me from specimens obtained from Central Australia by the Elder Exploring Expedition. _Megachile mystacea_, a medium sized species found in Queensland and Northern Australia, is also recorded from India; it is black, with the head and face clothed with silvery hairs, and the whole of the abdomen covered with rich reddish brown pubescence; while _M. pictiventris_ has the hind margin of the thorax clothed with silvery hairs, the apical half of the under-surface with reddish brown hairs which extend to form a fringe round the extremity. _M. chrysopyga_ is a native of Tasmania and Victoria. I found a nest of this species under a stone in the latter State, which could be lifted up bodily without breaking. It was about the shape and length of an ordinary cigar, and consisted of about nine cells containing the larvae. These cells, like a series of shallow thimbles, were enfolded in the outer shell of looser leaf.

The Genus _Coelioxys_ comprises a number of curious bees that in general appearance are so very like the “leaf cutters,” that a French naturalist having bred one out of a Megachile’s nest described it as the male form of the species. They are now known to be parasitic in the nests of these bees in Europe, so that the similarity in form may be of great protective value to them. They differ chiefly in the form of the abdomen, which in the males is produced into forked spines at the extremity, and in the females into a sharp point.

I have two undetermined species in my collection from Queensland obtained some years ago, but until last year the presence of this group had not been recorded from Australia. Cockerell recorded (1905) two species from this country; _Coelioxys albolineata_, measuring about ⅓ of an inch in length, comes from Queensland, and is of the usually grey and brown tints.

The last group we have to deal with are the Australian stingless honey bees, belonging to the Genus _Trigona_, which range all over Australia. They collect quantities of dark coloured somewhat acid flavoured honey, which they store up in little jug-shaped cells of dark brown wax, forming an irregular comb attached to the walls of the cavity in which they have constructed their hive by a network of irregular rods of wax. They generally choose a cavity in the heart of a large gum-tree with a small opening from the outside, and before commencing to make their comb they plaster up all the cracks and inequalities of the chamber with the sticky sap or gum of the Turpentine Tree (_Syncarpia_). This chamber is usually about the size of a man’s head, and the comb as a rule contains not more than a pint or two of honey. This is the typical nest found in N.S. Wales, but in the tropical scrubs of North Queensland many of them form a small funnel or spout projecting round the opening, composed of a waxy-substance an inch or more in length. As the green tree ants often capture these bees and are always swarming over the tree trunks, this is probably a necessary protection. The honey gatherers of _Trigona carbonaria_, our common species, are black, thickset little bees measuring about ⅙ of an inch in length. They are fearless little creatures when at work, and will allow themselves to be picked off the flowers without any attempt to fly. Several species have been recently added to our fauna, and though Dalla-Torre in his Catalogue places the members of the genus Trigona in the _Melipona_, which until then had only contained the allied stingless bees of South America and the tropics, Cockerell retains them in the old genus, describing a new species from Port Essington, and recording a species known in Ceylon (_Trigona canifrons_) also from the north coast of Australia.

Order V.--COLEOPTERA.

Beetles.

This group is the best known of all the orders, for nearly every entomologist starts collecting as a “beetle hunter.” They are the most frequently observed because they are found everywhere; there is hardly a log or stone that does not shelter some beetle; they infest all kinds of timber, damage the living trees in the forest, devour foodstuffs, stored grain, skins, furs and drugs; others are attracted to all kinds of decaying animal or vegetable matter; while hundreds either in the larval or perfect state are to be found all through the year upon the flowers, foliage, or bark of trees and plants.

Thus they are readily collected, and when obtained are much more easy to look after and keep than the more delicate insects, on account of their stout horny structure.

Beetles are typical insects in that the head, thorax, and abdomen are very well defined, and can be readily distinguished from each other; the insect is more or less protected with a stout horny integument. But the joints are flexible, so that though the parts fit close and the body appears ensheathed in regular armour plate, most of the species are very active. They are all furnished with cutting, biting, or chewing jaws, and are therefore called mandibulate insects; and with very few exceptions have well developed eyes and antennae, the latter produced into all kinds of curious shapes in some groups, but usually slender, filiform and many jointed. The thorax consists of one solid segment, the three portions, so apparent in some insects, being soldered together to form one uniform mass when viewed from above. The large abdomen is said to contain ten distinct segments on dissection, but when viewed from the under-surface generally only five can be seen. Instead of the thin flying, or membranous fore-wings of other insects, the first pair in the beetles are transformed into two horny plates completely covering the dorsal surface of the abdomen and called the elytra. When at rest they fit close together over the back, but can be readily opened out in flight. Though of little use in flying, they probably assist a large heavy beetle in balancing or steering through the air, and always cover the two large pointed membranous hind flying wings, which when not in use are folded up beneath them. In some beetles the elytra are not divided, but form a solid shield; and the hind wings are wanting, or if they exist are simple pads. The various families have the head, mouth parts, and legs admirably adapted to their different habits and diet.

Their larvae are also as variable in form as the perfect insects; many are active, slender grubs with three pairs of legs, and large powerful jaws, as in the carnivorous species; elongate cylindrical jointed creatures with scaly heads, or short and wrinkled grubs like the wood borers; others quite slug-like feed upon the surface of the foliage; and a few are clothed with fine hairs.

1, Labrum; 2, clypeus; 3, head; 4, prothorax; 5, maxillary
palpus; 6, antennae; 7, eyes; 8, elytron; 9, wings; 10,
scutellum; 11, abdominal segments; 12, scutellum of the
metathorax; 13, claws of the feet or the fore leg; 14, tarsus;
15, tibia; 16, femur; 17, middle leg; 18, spines or spurs on
tibia; 19, tarsus; 20, hind leg.

(Redrawn from Westwood [Griffiths’ Animal Kingdom].)]

In the pupal state, for all beetles undergo a complete metamorphosis, they are inactive, mummy-like creatures showing the outlines of the future beetle, with the wings, antennae, and legs closely folded down, and the whole enveloped in a thin membrane. Some form regular cocoons from the material among which they feed; others seal up at both ends the cavity in which they have been feeding before they pupate; but many do not even take this precaution.

The classification of the Coleoptera has been undertaken by many entomologists. In Gemminger and Harold’s great Catalogue of the Coleoptera, seventy-five families were enumerated; Sharp has recently adopted eighty, but when it comes to the larger sub-divisions none of them agree. Westwood in his Classification has an alarming array of sections, tribes, stirps, and sub-families: Kirby gives fourteen sections in his Text Book; while Sharp simplifies the matter by forming six series, some of them on the old lines, but his third series is apparently more of a dumping ground than anything else for those that will not fit into the other five, for it includes such dissimilar families as the Staphylinidae, Buprestidae, Coccinellidae and many others.

As Masters’ Catalogue of the Described Coleoptera of Australia is the list used by all Australian collectors, I shall follow his grouping of the families (originally based on that of Gemminger and Harold), defining the groups of each important or distinct family, though through want of space many of them can be only briefly noticed.

There have been so many describers of Australian beetles, that their names alone would take some enumerating; so that I propose to omit them here and notice them later on when dealing with the families upon which they have worked. Australia is rich in large and handsome specimens, which attracted the attention of the colonists at a very early date in the history of the country, and quite a number of collections were made and the specimens forwarded to England. Most of the exploring expeditions that traversed the back country had a collector of some sort on their staff, and it was usually beetles that formed the bulk of the entomological specimens obtained. Again the Scientific Exploring Ships, fitted out by our own and foreign countries, that visited the different ports, collected many zoological specimens, so that many of our larger beetles were known and described many years ago. Over 7,200 are listed in Masters’ Catalogue, and since its publication some thousands have been added to our list.

Family 1. Tiger Beetles.

CICINDELIDAE.

This family is well represented in Australia by about forty-five species, chiefly described by Macleay (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1871), and later on (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 1887–8); and Count Castelnau (Trans. Royal Soc. Victoria). The typical Tiger Beetles are slender graceful insects, with broad short heads, furnished with large projecting eyes, and great powerful jaws; the thorax is produced into a cylindrical neck; and the short rounded elytra cover large wings.

The Metallic Green Tiger Beetle.

(Original photo. Burton.)]

The larvae are elongated creatures, with large curving jaws; they live in burrows in the ground, generally in the vicinity of a waterhole or creek where there is a sandy shore; here they remain hidden during the day, and come out at night to capture and devour the less powerful insects they come across. One of our largest and most handsome species is _Megacephala cylindrica_, found in the western country, where it hides deep down in the cracks of the soil; it lives chiefly upon ants. It measures over ¾ of an inch in length, and is of a rich metallic green colour: the mouth, antennae and legs are brownish yellow. A second species, _M. frenchi_, has been recently described by Sloane, and ranges from North West Queensland into Western Australia. The Genus _Tetracha_ contains a number of handsome, shorter, broad-bodied Tiger Beetles with green metallic tints and reddish brown or yellow legs, and similar coloured markings on the wing covers. They form burrows, like their larvae, along the sandy margins of rivers and water-holes, coming out and running along the water’s edge at twilight, and often flying into the lamp at night. _Tetracha australis_ has a wide range from the Murray river to the interior; I have dug them out of the sand round an artesian bore near the Queensland border. It is smaller than the previously described one, which it somewhat resembles in general colour, but can be easily distinguished by the larger jaws, shorter body, and the elytra tipped with yellow near the apex.

_T. australasiae_ and _T. hopei_ are smaller species, dull green, marked with reddish brown on the wing covers; they are found in North West Australia, while several other species are recorded from Queensland.

The _Cicindela_ are not common about Sydney; two species, however, are to be found; _Cicindela ypsilon_, about ½ an inch long, is so named from the dark markings on the cream-coloured wing cases resembling the Greek E; they are to be found running about on the seashore in hundreds in midsummer, and can easily be caught by throwing a handful of sand over them: though so numerous, I have never been able to find their larvae. In captivity one ate raw beef quite readily, burying its jaw in the strange food and sucking up the juice.

_C. circumcincta_ is a smooth, dark green beetle with the outer edges of the wing covers marked with yellow; it is sometimes taken about Sydney, but is not very common.

The smallest Australian species is _C. tenuicollis_, described by Macleay from specimens I collected on a sandy flat near the Barrier Ranges in N.W. Australia; it is a rich, metallic red insect with slender legs and small thorax. On a sandy road near Cairns, N. Queensland, several small species were so plentiful that they often flew up in clouds, and I have taken scores in half an hour with a butterfly net.

The tropical Genus _Distypsidera_ is represented by about a dozen species, chiefly confined to North Queensland, where they hunt over the stems of trees; when approached they run round the trunk to keep out of sight; they are broader and more thickset than the _Cicindela_, and their eyes are very large and prominent; _D. flavicans_ is the only one that comes down as far as Northern N.S. Wales.

The researches of Hacker in North Queensland have added several new and interesting species of Tiger Beetles from the Coen River, some of which are closely allied to New Guinea forms.

Family 2. Carnivorous Ground Beetles.

CARABIDAE.

These are broader and thicker set than the Cicindelidae, varying in size from several inches to a line in length; the head is smaller than the thorax; and most of them are black or reddish brown, while others are richly marked with metallic tints.

They are most numerous in open forest country, hiding under logs or stones during the day and hunting over the ground at night: when camped in the bush, where logs are plentiful, the entomologist can often trap many interesting species by sinking empty tins into the soil, into which they readily tumble.

The larvae are slender creatures with three pairs of simple legs; their bodies are protected with stout horny plates, and the head is furnished with large powerful jaws; they are found in the same situations as the adult beetles, and devour all kinds of insects that they can capture; the larger ones even eat small frogs. This family has been divided into a great number of sub-families which it is hardly necessary to enumerate here.

Australia is very rich in _Carabidae_; over 1,600 species have been described. Chaudoir described many in Russian and Belgian; Newman, Westwood, Pascoe, Hope, and Bates in English; Castelnau, Macleay, and Sloane in Australian scientific journals; so that the literature dealing with these beetles is very scattered, but the references can be found in Masters’ Catalogue.

_Calosoma schayeri_ is our type of this cosmopolitan genus. They live in cavities in cultivated fields, and are very useful insects where numerous, for they devour the larvae and pupae of many species of cut-worms. It measures about 1 inch in length, has a small head, narrow rounded thorax, and very broad, short, rounded abdomen; the whole is bright metallic green. It has a wide range over Australia, and may sometimes be even taken in the Sydney streets.

The Genus _Pamborus_ contains many distinctive black beetles, some of which are marked with coppery green tints; they measure up to 1 inch in length, and are broad in proportion. When captured, many of them discharge an acrid fluid or gas that stains the fingers reddish brown.

_Pamborus viridis_ is black, with the wing covers thickly ridged with parallel punctured striae marked with green.

_P. alternans_ is a larger beetle, 1¼ inches long, with the same small head, and rounded thorax tapering and narrow behind; the coppery-tinted elytra have very broad parallel ridges.

56. _Helluo costatus_ (Bonelli). The Desert-Carab.
58. _Hyperion schroetteri_ (Schreib.). The Forest-Carab.
57. _Trichosternus renardi_ (Chaud.). The Scrub-Carab.
59. _Catadromus australis_ (Casteln.). The Swamp-Carab.

(Original photo. Burton.)]

_Drypta australis_ is a small beetle about 5 lines in length; it has a pointed head, large projecting eyes, and the thorax forms a cylindrical neck hardly broader than the head; the wing covers do not quite cover the tip of the abdomen. In general colour it is yellowish brown, with the antennae, legs, a broad stripe down the centre and the edges of the wing covers dark purple to black; the wing covers are very finely striated and punctured. They live on the edges of swamps, and sometimes fly into the lamp at night.

A beetle with a very wide range is _Helluo costatus_; it is a medium sized brown beetle; the head and thorax are about the same length, the latter rounded on either side in front but narrowed behind; the wing covers are flattened, broadly ridged, and not reaching to the tip of the abdomen.

The Yellow Bombardier Beetle which discharges an acrid gas
when disturbed.

(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]

Our Common “Bombardier Beetle,” _Pheropsophus verticalis_, is another widely distributed species; it measures over ½ an inch in length, and is of a general dark brown tint, with the head, antennae, and thorax dull yellow; the wing covers, which do not reach to the tip of the abdomen, are blotched on either side and the tip with the same colour. It can be found in any damp spot under stones or logs; and as soon as disturbed, it discharges a small cloud of vapour with a distinct report, and which feels quite warm to the fingers.

The Genus _Scopodes_ contains a number of tiny beetles that are common on the plains and about crabholes and swamps.

_Scopodes sigillatus_ has the wing covers roughened, and measures about 2 lines in length; with its large projecting eyes it might be mistaken for a small Tiger Beetle.

We now come to a group, PSEUDOMORPHIDES, comprising a number of genera that live under the loose bark on tree trunks; they have adapted themselves to their confined hiding places, so that they have become flattened and rounded, and even remarkable in colouration; and so, unless a collector carefully examines them, he would never at first sight think of including them among the Carabidae.