ISELY: EUMENID.-E OF KANSAS. 239 



Fabre has sketched the habits of a species of Eumenfs, probably E. 

 pomiformis. This Eiimenes constructs with clay a small vase-like earthen- 

 ware vessel, in the walls of which small stones are embedded. This it 

 fills with food for the young. The food consists of caterpillars to the 

 number of fourteen or si.xteen for each nest. These caterpillars are 

 believed to be stung by the parent wasp (as in the case of the fossorial 

 Hymenoptera) , but complete evidence of this does not seem to be extant, 

 and if it be so, the stinging does not completely deprive the caterpillars 

 of the capacity of movement, for they possess the power of using their 

 mandibles and of making strokes or kicking with the posterior part of 

 the body. It is clear that if the delicate egg of Eumenes or the delicate 

 larva that issues from it were placed in the midst of a mass of this kind 

 it would probably suffer destruction; therefore, to prevent this, the egg 

 is not placed among the caterpillars, but is suspended from the dome 

 covering the nest by a delicate thread, rivaling in fineness the web of 

 the spider, and, being above the mass of food, it is safe. When the 

 young larva leaves the egg it still makes use of the shell as its habi- 

 tation, and eats its first meals from the vantage point of suspension. 

 Although the mass of the food grows less by consumption, the little 

 larva is enabled to reach it by the fact that the egg shell splits up into 

 a sort of a ribbon, and thus adds to the length of the suspensory thread, 

 of which it is the terminal portion. Finally the heap of caterpillars 

 shrinks so much that it can not be reached by the larva even with the 

 aid of the augmented length of the suspensory thread; by this time, 

 however, the little creature has so much increased in size and strength 

 that it is able to take its place amongst the food without danger of 

 being crushed by the mass, and it afterwards completes its metamor- 

 phosis in the usual manner. 



E. unguiculata, according to Ferris," constructs an earthen 

 nest of irregular shape, containing three cells in one mass. 

 E. coarctata/- a British species, attaches its nest to a twig of 

 a shrub, while both previously mentioned species of this genus 

 build their nests upon a flattened surface. E. conica, accord- 

 ing to Home,' constructs, in Hindustan, clay nests with very 

 delicate walls. It is much attacked by parasites. 



The likeness of the earthen nests of Eumenes to pottery 

 has been spoken of by many authors. Howard* writes : "Prof. 

 0. T. Mason says that certain beautifully shaped Indian vessels 

 and baskets have precisely the same form as these cells, and 

 he thinks that the observant aborigines may have deliberately 

 copied the insect design." 



4. Insect Book, p. 31. 



3-Univ. Sci. Bull., Vol. VIII, No. 7. 



