MASONS. 77 



by the mother bringing them food from time to 

 time. This food consists of a paste resembling 

 dried honey. 



The plan of suspending the egg by a thread from 

 the roof of the cell is also adopted by Eumenes, 

 another genus of Mason Wasps, of which we have 

 a single British representative — Eumenes coarctata. 

 This is the mason to whom we alluded as having 

 advanced to the status of art potter, for its nests — 

 often attached to the stems of heath plants — take 

 the form of low, round vases, with short neck and 

 turned-out lip. The nest is made of clay tempered 

 with the wasp's own cement, and it consists of a 

 single cell which, before the mouth is closed, is 

 stocked with caterpillars and the wasp's egg. Some- 

 times it is placed on a broader surface than the 

 twigs of a shrub afford, and in that case loses some 

 of its grace, the bottom being flat to give it a better 

 hold. 



Eumenes arbustorum and E. pomiformis show that 

 they are true Masons by building into the walls 

 of their nests small stones, so that they have the 

 appearance of having been built up of stones with 

 clay to hold them together. (See Plate 7 for 

 nests of E. pomiformis.) E. pomiformis occurs in the 

 South of France, and Fabre, apparently describ- 

 ing this species, says that the fourteen or sixteen 

 caterpillars with which the nest is provisioned are 

 only slightly affected by the stinging (if, as believed, 

 they are stung), for they are able to use their 

 jaws and to kick out, as it were, with the hinder 



