BEES, WASPS, ANTS, ETC. 



527 



The POJIPILID.E is a larger and more important family than either of the two pre- 

 ceding. Its representatives arc well known and feared, on account of their formi- 

 dable sting. They are slender in form, usually black in color, occasionally variegated 

 with red or orange, and with dusky, reddish, or black wings. The tropical species are 

 often very large, and, in fact, among the species of the genus Pepsis are to be found 

 the largest of known Hymenoptera. Pepsis heros of Cuba is over two inches long. 



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FIG. dl>2. Wasps. , Pompilius Hafalciisix, stinging a spider; 6, Af/enia punctual and i 

 trlvialis ; <l. its larva feeding on a spider; e, 1'riocnemis variegatus. 



its cell; c, 1'ompllius 



The insects of this family have very long, slender legs. The abdomen is oval and 

 attached to the thorax by a very short peduncle ; the pronotum is quadrate, and the 

 wings have two or three perfect submarginal cells. 



The name "sand-wasps," which has been applied to these insects, is derived from 

 their almost universal habit of digging burrows in sandy places, and provisioning them 

 with stung insects. There are, however, exceptions to this rule. Pompilius petiola- 

 tus has been observed forming a nest of clay in the chinks of a wall, and the entire 

 genus Ceropales seems to be parasitic or in- 

 quilinous, laying its eggs in the nests of fos- 

 sorial species. Ceropales ruficollis has been 

 bred from the mud-nest of Agenia, a member 

 of the same family, and the American C. 

 rufiventris has been similarly bred from the 

 cells of Ayenia bombycina. 



The typical genus Pompilius is one of 

 large extent, and over five hundred species 

 are known. The so-called "tarantula-killer" 

 of Texas (Pompilius formosus) stores its 

 burrow with the great southwestern spider, 

 Mygale hentzii, erroneously known as a taran- 

 tula. Its burrow is five inches deep, and 

 but one Mygale and one egg are deposited in each. Occasionally the spider succeeds 

 in capturing the wasp, but this does not often happen. The wonderful effect of the 

 sting is well shown by Dr. Lincecum, who states that he has found spiders stored 

 away, on which the egg of the Pompilius had failed to hatch, and that, after an evident 



FIG. 653. Ceropales. 



