242 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



about one-third way down. In the nest of conformis, from 

 which all but one of the caterpillars had fallen out of the cell, 

 the egg hung loosely against the wall. "In the other nests," 

 the account reads, "the lower part was packed tightly with 

 sixteen small larvse, upon which lay the egg, supported in a 

 horizontal position, although attached to the side wall exactly 

 as conformis, and above were eight more caterpillars, the 

 whole forming a compact mass shut in by the usual partition 

 of mud. So closely were they crammed in, that after counting 

 them we were unable to get them all back again, and although 

 motionless in their narrow quarters they became quite active 

 when relieved from pressure. This is an entirely different 

 arrangement from that of 0. reniformis (described by Fabre) , 

 and since the larva is in contact with the caterpillars from the 

 moment of hatching, the manner of the egg-laying has no 

 significance in relation to the safety of the young. 



Conformis, upon hatching, sloughed off" the skin but re- 

 mained attached to it, thus doubling the length of the thread 

 by which it hung. The larvse of anormis, upon hatching, broke 

 from their attachment. They cocooned on the fifth day after 

 hatching. 



O. vagus was noted bringing pellets from a "sharp-edged" 

 hole in the ground, dropping these ten or twelve inches from 

 the burrow. This wasp was much disturbed by a red-headed 

 match stuck in the ground two inches away from her burrow. 

 For half an hour she refused to work until the offending ob- 

 ject was removed. 



A three-celled nest of 0. capra was found in the mouthpiece 

 of a tin horn. The cells contained a larva and a supply of very 

 lively caterpillars, of which ten wei"e in the cell most lately 

 formed. One egg was found in another cell before it was pro- 

 visioned. In four days the larva made its appearance, slough- 

 ing off the skin, and being free to crawl away. 



Habits of two eumenids, O. dorsalis and 0. arvensia, which I 

 have studied, have been described by Mr. Carl Hartman in a 

 bulletin published by the Lniversity of Texas, entitled "Ob- 

 servations on the Habits of Some Solitary Wasps of Texas."^ 

 These observations were made near Austin, Tex., during the 

 summer of 1903. 



Mr. Hartman writes : "O. dorsalis builds pretty mud cells on 

 the ground, choosing a place hidden from view by a clump of 



8. Bui. Univ. Tex., No. 6.5, pp. 6-10. 



