210 BOMBAY DUCKS 



the insect on the ground while they dig ; one species 

 walking backwards and dragging its spider after it, and 

 when the spider is so small that it carries it in its 

 mandible, it still walks backwards as if dragging it, 

 when it would be much easier to walk forward. A 

 curious little people, leading their solitary lives and 

 greatly differentiated by their solitude, hardly any two 

 alike, one nervous and excitable, another calm and un- 

 hurried ; one careless in her work, another neat and 

 thorough ; this one suspicious, that one confiding ; 

 ammophila using a pebble to pack down the earth in 

 her burrow, while another species uses the end of her 

 abdomen — verily a queer little people, with a lot of 

 wild nature about them, and a lot of human nature too." 



A multitude of solitary wasps are found in Madras, 

 many of which invade our houses and build their nests 

 inside them. One of these, one of the Eumenidae, 

 recently forced herself upon my notice. She is known 

 to entomologists as RJiynchium brun7ieum. She has no 

 popular name. I use the pronoun " she " advisedly, 

 for among wasps the male is an unimportant creature. 

 He is smaller than the female, and takes no part in the 

 construction or the provisioning of the nest. 



The female of this particular wasp is about three- 

 quarters of an inch long, her waist is short and thick, 

 her body is brownish red in colour, marked posteriorly 

 by three black bands which run across the body. Her 

 glassy wings are of a brownish-yellow hue. Thus her 

 garments are neither very beautiful nor very showy. 

 She is clad in quiet, businesslike clothes which are 

 quite in keeping with her calm, industrious habits. 



