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Both of these gentlemen were fond of natural history, especially the father, who was a good observer of the habits of birds. He encouraged natural history researches. Trigonalys compressus. Smith. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. n. ser. 1. p. pl. 16. f. 2. Sphex compressa. De Geer. Mem. 3. Trigonalys bipustulatus. Nat. Hist. 7 1851. Habitat: Nest of Polistes lanio. Brazil.
In one cell I observed the head of an insect evidently of a different species, it being black and shining. On extricating it, I discovered it to be a species of Trigonalys; I subsequently carefully expanded the insect, and it proved to be the Trigonalys bipustulatus, described by myself in the Ann. and Mag. of Natural History, volume 7 2nd Series, 1851, from a specimen captured at Para by Mr.
Bates, now in the possession of William Wilson Saunders, Esquire. The insect was not enveloped in any pellicle, nor had the cell been closed in any way; the wings were crumpled up at its side, as is usual in Hymenopterous insects which have not expanded them, proving satisfactorily that it had never quitted the cell, and that Trigonalys is the parasite of Polistes.
Frederick Smith, is well known for his profound knowledge of the Hymenoptera, Exotic and British, which, though he has studied them ONLY fourteen years, are better known to him, perhaps, than to any other living Entomologist; the instant that he looked at the nest, he exclaimed, "Why, here is Trigonalys!" and certainly a large, black-headed creature, not very like Polistes, protruded from one of the cells.
Among the Hymenoptera, few genera have created greater dispute than the anomalous genus Trigonalys of Westwood. Mr. Macgillivray one day brought to the British Museum the nest of a Brazilian Polistes. My friend, Mr.
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