336 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. ue 



jahorus placidus (Say), S. zeae Walsh, and S. parwlus Gyllenhal. 

 The cuckoo-wasp Hedychrum violaceum Brulle was seen entering the 

 bicornuta burrow. On page 338, Rau reports that C. jinitima Cres- 

 son "make nests in twdgs," but the present writer finds no other 

 record of this or any other species of Cerceris nesting in twigs. 



In 1928 (pp. 205-206) Abbott reported observations on the nesting 

 and prey of Cerceris architis Mickel (— C halone Banks), which he 

 found nesting at Elgin, 111. This wasp was using Curculio nasicus 

 Say as food for its young. 



In 1929 (p. 35) Cartwright reported C. bicornuta Guerin provision- 

 ing its nests with the maize billbug Calendra maidis Chittenden. 

 Cartwright in 1931 (pp. 269-270) reported some observations at 

 Jocassee, S.C., on C. Jumipennis Say, which he found collecting the 

 beetle Buprestidae. Specimens of these beetles found about the 

 wasp's nesting area numbered 136 and represented 20 species that he 

 listed by name. At the same time, he reported seeing a specimen of 

 C. mandibularis Patton bringing in a grasshopper nymph. This 

 unusual prey record needs verification. 



Strandtmann reported briefly in 1945 (pp. 311-312) observations 

 of three species of Cerceris in Ohio. C. serripes Fabricius (=C. 

 bicornuta Guerin) was reported collecting a weevil, Calandra sp.; 

 C. rujinoda Cresson, the weevil Tychius picirostris (Fabricius) ; C. jinitima 

 Cresson, a black flea beetle, Cheatocnema pulicaria Melsheimer. 



Krombein has taken advantage of the opportunity to study the 

 biology of several species of Cerceris over the past years. In 1936 

 (pp. 93-99) he reported observations made of C. nigrescens F. 

 Smith at Buftalo, N.Y. He found this vv^asp provisioning its nest with 

 Hyper odes delumbis GyUenhal and Sitona hispidula Fabricius. A 

 sarcophagid (Senotainia trUineata Van der Wulp) was seen shadowing 

 the wasp. In 1938 (pp. 1-3) Krombein reported subsequent observa- 

 tions at Buffalo on C. nigrescens F. Smith, where the wasp was found 

 to be using the beetles Sitona hispidula (Fabricius), Oymnetron 

 antirrhini Paykull, Oymnetron sp., and Hyperodes delumbis (GyUenhal), 

 aU of which are Curcuhonidae. 



In 1950 (pp. 147-149) Krombein reported studies of a colony of 

 C. robertsonii Fox at Kill Devil Hills, N.C. This species of wasp was 

 found provisioning its ceUs with a chrysomelid (Rhabdopterus picipes 

 (Oliver)). Aletopia leucocephala (Rossi), a parasitic sarcophagid fly 

 was reared from the wasp cell. Subsequent studies by the same 

 worker in 1952 at Kill Devil Hills, N.C. (1953, pp. 113-121), showed 

 this wasp to be collecting Cryptocephalus notatus Fabricius and Pachy- 

 brachis dilatatus Suffrian (Chrysomehdae). At the same location he 

 reported C. bicornuta bicornuta Guerin taking the following weevils: 

 Calendra venata venata (Chittenden) and C. cariosus (OHver). A more 



