34 NEW ZEALAND ENTOMOLOGY. 



made by the perfect bees when emerging from their 

 retreat at once arrests our attention. These nests con- 

 sist of about ten oval cells, formed of clay, and neatly 

 smoothed within. They are all constructed by a single 

 female, which also provisions them with honey and pollen, 

 depositing an egg in each The larva, after consuming 

 the food, changes into a pupa, from which the perfect 

 insect emerges about January. If the reader will imagine 

 a great number of these nests closely packed together, 

 the formation and storing of the cells being performed 

 by a number of sterile individuals (workers), while the 

 eggs are deposited by a single female (queen), he will 

 have a fair idea of the economy of the social bees and 

 wasps, whose wonderful instincts attain their maximum 

 in the well-known hive-bee, successfully introduced and 

 cultivated in various parts of the country. 



Closely allied to this species is Dasycollctes purpureas (?) 

 (Fig. 10), which forms its nests in sand-banks, its cylin- 

 drical holes having a great resemblance to the burrows of 

 Cincindela tuberculatum which frequently occur in the same 

 situation. 



Family Sphegid^;. 



Pompilus fugax (Plate III., fig. 2). 



This is a very abundant insect, and may be observed 

 flying about on any fine day during the summer, occa- 

 sionally stopping to examine leaves and crevices in the 

 bark of trees, where it is looking for the unfortunate 

 spiders, which constitute the food of its progeny. The 

 larva is a fat apodal grub, and may be found in the cells 

 constructed by the perfect insect, which usually selects 

 a large cylindrical hole in a log, previously drilled out 

 by a weevil. Into this burrow she pushes a large quan- 

 tity of spiders, which she has previously captured and 

 paralyzed with her venomous sting. When her nest is 



