Literature Cited. 



1. Boisduval, Lepidopteres de la Californie, 1852. The species 



desci'ilM'd first. 



2. Boisduval, Lepidopteres de la California, 1869. 



3. Behr, Proceedings of the California Academy of Natural 



Sciences, III, 1864, p. 124. 



4. Edwards, Henry, Proceedings, of the California Academy 



of Sciences, June 7, 1875. 



5. Hopkins, C. L., Insect Life, II, p. 355-356. 1890. 



6. Bryant, II. C, The Condor, November-December, 1911, pp. 



1 95-208. Illustrations. 



7. Williams, F. X., Entomological News, February, 1909. 



8. Newcomer, E. J., Entomological News, February, 1912. 



Masaria Vespoides 



Anstruther Davidson, ^1. D. 



This wasp makes its appearance in the end of May or 

 first of June contemporaneous with the flowering of Pent- 

 stemon spectal>ilis in the flowers of which the homeless males 

 find a refuge from the evening cold. I have found it as far 

 north as Bishop in Inyo County, and it probably is to be found 

 all over Southern California but is nowhere common. In the 

 neighl)orhood of Elysian Park and in Hollywood hills its nests 

 are not so very rare. Their nests, a combination of cells as 

 shown in the accompanying illustration are built after the 

 manner of the common mud dauber wasp and when completed 

 it is plastered over with a further layer of clay. They are 

 usually attached to a twig in a low bush, the one in the illus- 

 tration being found on a Audibertia shrub. AVhen the cell is 

 completed the opening is closed by a stopper of clay which is, 

 however, always depressed below the rim of the cell so that 

 the top shows as a series of miniature cups. .The clay used 

 is that common to the neighborhood, liut in the process of 

 building it is mixed wuth some secretion that makes the whole 

 of such stony hardness, that it seems impossible any insect 

 could possibly cut its way through it. Perhaps the cup shaped 

 depression on top may be a device to conserve the rain neces- 

 sary to soften the stopper and render the exit of the wasp 

 possible. That rain or excessive moisture is necessary before 

 the insect can successfully emerge is suggested by the results 

 attained in indoor hatching. In those nests kept indoors in 

 dry receptacles while the wasp usually attains the mature 

 state, it only exceptionally cuts its way oUt. Kept under these 

 conditions the larvae do not always mature in the following 

 spring as the following record makes evident. Of a cluster 

 of cells gathered in June, 1902 ; in April, 1903, I opened two of 



17 



