658 THE STUDY OF INSECTS. 



the habits of our species. But as an European species has 

 been bred from the nest, of a digger-wasp, it is inferred that 

 the members of this family are inquilines. 



Family EUMENID.E (Eu-men'i-dae). 

 The Solitary Wasps. 



All of the variations in habits found among digger-wasps 

 occur in this family. Some are miners, digging tunnels in 

 the earth ; some are carpenters, cutting tubular nests in wood 

 and then showing a mason's skill by partitioning their tun- 

 nels off into cells with mud. While others are masons pure 

 and simple, and build oval or globular mud-nests which they 

 fasten to twigs of trees; such nests often contain many 

 cells. All of these wasps are predaceous, provisioning their 

 nests with insects. 



One species, Eumenes fraternu?, (Eu'me-nes fra-ter'- 

 nus), makes a neat little nest, which appears like a miniature 



FIG. 786. Eumenes fraternus and its nest. 



water-jug (Fig. 786). These Mason-wasps have a very char- 

 acteristic form. The peduncle of the abdomen is shaped 

 like a bell with a long handle. The segment of the ab- 

 domen next to the peduncle is large and globe-shaped. The 

 segments behind this taper off into a point, giving the whole 



