266 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



An extract from my field notes may show about how fast an 

 average wasp works on a favorable day. It reads as follows: 

 "0. papagoriim left nest at 8 :40 A. M. Returned in eleven min- 

 utes with a caterpillar. Storing it required three minutes. 

 Returned with second caterpillar in twenty minutes. Stored . 

 it in five minutes. Hunt for third caterpillar took twenty-five 

 minutes. Spent eight and one-half minutes storing it. Re- 

 turned in fifty-three and one-half minutes. Stored it in three 

 minutes. Came out and backed into tube (perhaps to ovi- 

 posit). Stayed inside five minutes. Returned with cater- 

 pillar in twenty-six minutes. Storing it required thirteen min- 

 utes." Thus three hours and forty-five minutes were spent in 

 capturing and storing five caterpillars. 



The egg of 0. papagorum is cylindrical, slightly tapering to- 

 ward the rounded ends. It is creamy white in color. The 

 filament attachment is white and about the same length as the 

 egg. The egg is 21/2 mm. long and % mm. in its greatest 

 diameter. 



The larva is a very stout grub, much larger posteriorly than 

 anteriorly. Its ventral outline is slightly curved, and when 

 mature is about 10 mm. in length. Its dorsal outline is 

 strongly curved and is ISi/o mm. in length. Its greatest diam- 

 eter is 41/2 mm. In color the grub is whitish. The pupa is also 

 whitish, and is 9 to 10 mm. in length. 



Closely associated with 0. papagorum was a cuckoo bee, 

 Chrysis pattoni. The green parasitic bees were ubiquitous on 

 the faces of cliff's in which the wasps nested. They often 

 seemed more numerous than the wasps themselves. 



These chrysidids spent most of their time searching the face 

 of the cliff's, investigating every hole or crevice in the bank, 

 and sometimes finding their way into the tube of 0. papa- 

 gorum. These same cliffs were also used as nesting sites for 

 small andrenid bees. While I seldom saw a cuckoo bee pass 

 one of these burrows by without stopping to look into it, I 

 never saw one actually enter an andrenid nest. They seemed 

 to be searching for the storehouse of Odynerus. 



The tube over the entrance to the burrow was of considerable 

 importance, I believe, in keeping these undesirable guests out 

 of the nest. Because of this tube, cuckoo bees seemed at least 

 to have great difficulty in finding their way into the burrow. 

 When a cuckoo bee would come in contact with a tube it would 

 generally pass it by, while it would easily have found an open 



