264 



INSECT LIFE. 



When a nest of any of these in- 

 sects is found containing either larvas 

 or pupse, the adults can be bred 

 by carefully closing the nest and 

 placing it in a breeding cage, or, if it 

 is too long, in a bag of Swiss muslin. 

 There are certain minute digger- 

 wasps that do not need to remove all 

 the pith from the section of the 

 branch in which they make their 

 nest. These make winding burrows 

 in the pith. Fig. 238 rep- 

 resents one of these nests. 

 Such nests are usually 

 provisioned with plant- 

 lice. 



Some of the wood-bur- 

 rowing bees and wasps 

 are not so saving of their 

 labor as those that bur- 

 row in pith, but make 

 their tunnels in solid 

 wood. Fig. 239 repre- 

 sents the nest of a solitary 

 wasp which was made in a 

 board in the side of a 

 barn. The contents of 

 the cells had been re- 

 moved by the collector 

 before the nest came into our posses- 

 sion, hence they are not shown in 

 the figure. The partitions in this 

 nest are made of mud. The archi- 



239. 



