HORNETS. WASPS, AND FLIES SUCKING THE SAP OF TREES. 13
appearance of those noted by Mr. Christy and other observers, and
probably also some of the wasps seen at the foot of the tree. Most likely
these were not all victims of the hornets, although the latter are just as
inimical to wasps as both are to flies and other insects.
"Bleeding," as observed in the field, is by no means confined to elms,
as the records below will show, but I will take those relating to that tree
first.
The Rev. C. R. N. Burrows, of Mucking Vicarage, in our county,
writes to me as follows: "A large elm by my entrance-gate was very
much visited, some three or four years ago, by wasps and an occasional
P. atalanta [Red Admiral]. The former were quite a nuisance because
they flopped about in a semi-intoxicated state. In these parts, the natives,
when they observe wasps, etc., visiting a bleeding tree, observe that the
tree is doomed to death. The tree above referred to is (as far as I can
see) quite healthy still. A small tree, also an elm, as far as I can recollect,
standing by a gate at the entrance of a pasture, was very much affected
some years ago. That tree is gone."
Dr. X. H. Joy, referring to his observations on coleoptera frequenting
Cossus-infected trees for exuding sap and other reasons, remarks1 that,
in nearly every case, in his neighbourhood (Bradfield, Essex), these Cossus
trees are found in groups of three or four close together, and often one
tree of the group is more severely attacked than the others; also that
one occasionally finds an old tree very much eaten, with no others in its
vicinity. He also mentions Eugonia polychloros (Large Tortoiseshell)
and Vespa rufa (Red Wasp) as the most conspicuous visitors to the trees,
apart from coleoptera, and that the sap does not begin to run from the
trees until June and dries up again by the end of October. The trees
he observed were mostly oaks (about 25), one elm, and two ashes, one
of the latter having been killed.
There is also a reference3 to the Camberwell Beauty (Euvanessa
antiopa) having been caught at a "bleeding" elm near Cheltenham..
Other references to wounded oak trees (attracting Eugonia polychloros
and Pyrantels atalanta) near Herne, Kent, are in Entomologist, xxxiii.,
p. 304. In a long account of hornets at Assington, the vicar alludes
(Entomologist, xxx., p. 268) to sap exuding from an oak. in his shrubbery
as attracting one hornet at a time! There is also a reference (Entomol., x.,
p. 252) to E. antiopa having been similarly attracted at Ryde, I.W.
Beside Dr. Joy's ash-trees there is a reference to one at Horsey,
Norfolk, attracting E. antiopa and P. atalanta.
Then we have a note by Prof. Meldolar, recording Vanessa io and
E. polychloros at sap exuding from birch trees, "from wounds in the
bark or other causes," in the plantations near Wanstead Orphan Asylum;
and P. atalanta and wasps are also noted5 in large number at a Cossus-
attacked birch trunk on Wimbledon Common.
Besides several other records of butterflies attracted similarly to
trees not specified, there is a case of a Cossus-infected alder near Norwich
1 Entomologist's Record, xvi., p. 89.
2 Entomologist, ix., p. 201. 
3 Ent. Rec., xi., p. 278.
4 Essex Nat., v., p. 115.
5 Ent., xxxiii., p. 268.