586 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NA TORAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



Hying round for a while she alighted close to the half-finished cell and 

 walking up to it stuck the mud she was carrying on to one side of it and 

 proceeded to work it into the wall of the cell hneading it^ so far as I could 

 see without approaching too close and frightening her, with both jaws and 

 forelegs. Then she retreated a little as if to take a view of her work, and in 

 a few seconds flew away to return with more mud. It was easy enough to 

 recognize the species, it was E. conica, the commonest of the Fossorial wasps 

 in Burma, I watched for nearly an hour while the nest was being com- 

 pleted. It then formed the half of a hemispherical shell, somewhat smaller in 

 circumference than a rupee, with a circular opening at the top. When the cell 

 walls were so far finished the wasp flew off and was absent fully half an hour. 

 During hec absence one of those metallic green cuckoo wasps, subsequently 

 identified as Chrysls fuscipemiis alighted near the nest, approached it cauti- 

 ously, examined it quickly, both inside and out, and then retreated behind 

 the edge of the wooden framework where it remained motionless, 

 apparently on the watch. Presently the Eumenes returned carrying a green 

 caterpillar. She alighted on the window and after some preliminary 

 inspection of her nest, and hauling and dragging of the caterpillar, crammed 

 it into the cell. She took quite a long time over it, with sometimes, her head 

 and thorax inside, and sometimes her abdomen. All this time the Cuckoo- 

 wasp remained perfectly still watching. As soon, however, as the Eumenes 

 had flown away, the Chrysia approached the nest again, slowly and apparently 

 with great caution. She walked round it then up the side, and peeped in, 

 withdrew her head, seemed to give a final good look all round and popped in. 

 She could not have been more than a few seconds inside, when a loud buz 

 announced the return of the rightful owner of the nest. I had barely time 

 to glance at the Eumenes, which alighted, as before, on the window, when my 

 attention was attracted by the darting out of the cell of the burglarious 

 Cuckoo-wasp. The Eumenes saw it, too, and, with what sounded very like an 

 angry buz, dashed after it in pursuit, overtook it, and then the two dropped to 

 the ground. I ran out but I had to go round by a veranda too high to jump, 

 to the steps, and by the time I arrived on the ground the fight was over and 

 the Eumenes had disappeared. The Chnjsis, however, lay on the ground 

 crippled and crawling painfully with all its wings torn off close to the roots. 

 I have the specimen and one torn forewing which was all I could find, in 

 my collection still. Returning to the nest, I sat.and worked at a table near it 

 for more than an hour, and inspected it at intervals through that day, but 

 the Eumenes never returned, and nest morning the cell was still open and 

 unsealed. I tried to take it off with care but it broke to pieces. Inside was 

 one green caterpillar, and two semi-transparent white fggs, one much 

 smaller than the other; of these eg<;s the larger one was stuck against 

 the wall of the cell, the other deposited on the caterpillar. I may mention 

 that the caterpillar was quite dead. 



