650 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [BuU. 



them are predaceous and provision their nests with spiders, 

 Homoptera, Lepidopterous larvae or other insects. Some choose, 

 however, the Diptera as food for their young, but these will 

 have to be classed with the beneficial insects for the present as, so 

 far as is known, none of them collect any of the parasitic flies, 

 while many of them provision their nests with the horse-flies. 

 The genus Cerceris should in the main be classed as beneficial 

 since it uses weevils for food. There is one record of this genus 

 as using honey bees, in which case it would have to be classed as 

 injurious. The subfamily Phalanthinas would, as a rule, have 

 to be considered as injurious, since these insects provision their 

 nests with bees. 



The habits of these wasps are very diversified ; some nest in 

 colonies ; others, and by far the great majority of them, are soli- 

 tary in their nesting habits. The nests are either constructed into 

 clay cells ; made in the sand ; or often in abandoned nests, either 

 clay nests constructed by other members of this super family or 

 the galleries of other insects being used for a home for the future 

 larvae. Some species nest within the stems of plants which have 

 a large pithy center. A few, however, are known to actually 

 excavate burrows in solid wood after the manner of the 

 carpenter bee. 



Some very interesting observations of the insects belonging to 

 this group have been made by the Peckhams and in many cases 

 reference will be made to their papers. The French studept, 

 Fabre, has also made many interesting and original observations 

 on the habits of the European wasps belonging to this super- 

 family, and any student of the habits of these wasps should 

 become familiar with the papers of this French author, and 

 should endeavor to correlate the habits of the American species 

 with their congeners in Europe. 



The following species which are included within the State are, 

 according to the author's views, only a small percentage of the 

 species which actually occur there, and it is to be hoped that 

 students of Entomology within the region covered by this paper 

 will make a special effort to collect Sphecoid wasps, and that it 

 will be possible within a few years to add many species to this 

 list. 



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