WILLIAMS: LARRID.-E OF KANSAS. 193 



and 1 :42 P. I.l. She returntd empty handed at least twice be- 

 tween these hours, and sometimes remained a considerable 

 time within her burrow. 



An attempt to follow the tunnel failed. I should judge, how- 

 ever, that the affair was of good depth and several-celled. The 

 wasp herself not being captured, her identity is uncertain, for 

 besides divisa, the similarly colored but larger aurantia was 

 taken in the same pit. At Kirwin, Phillips county, in August, 

 1912, however, the former species was seen to enter a hole the 

 size of that made by a mouse. She reappeared very shortly, 

 carrying- a small Ceutophilitt< under her. Fearing to lose this 

 wasp, she was captured. 



The fact that at least some of the wasps of this genus occur 

 very frequently about holes dug by animals would perhaps in- 

 dicate that the "cave" cricket is the common food of more than 

 one species. These Orthoptera fairly swarm in such retreats 

 during the day, where they can often be seen congregated in 

 numbers along the sides and ce'ling. It is not improbable that 

 the wasps commonly nest in the vicinity of some such hole, and 

 that the lack of marked pilosity of the species of the genus 

 Larropsis may be partly accounted for by their habits. 



Tachytes. 



In comparison with the members of the genus Tachijsphex, 

 the act'ons of these wasps are slow. They do not run over the 

 ground in such mad haste as do their smaller relatives, and 

 excavate their burrows in a more dignified manner, pushing 

 out the soil with the abdomen instead of throwing it out be- 

 hind them in a stream like the Tachysphex. 

 Tachytes abdominalis Say. 



Rly notes on this species are very fragmentary. The in- 

 sect was not infrequently seen hunting her prey in moist places 

 where immature Tettigidje (grouse locusts) appeared to be 

 the common object of pursuit; she was also seen in stubble 

 fields, where she captured young MelauopU. The wasp moved 

 rather slowly and often appeared to experience some difficulty 

 in stinging her prey, due perhaps to the small size of the latter. 

 I located a single nest of this species in Trego county, July, 

 1912, but failed to trace the tunnel for more than five inches, 

 for which length it was approximately vertical. 



