VVASrS. 187 



C. Family Masaridae. A small family which have 

 clubbed antennae. These wasps have a narrow 

 petiole and build nests in the form of a tunnel in the 

 ground, or they make clay nests. 



A. — Family Eumenidae. 



These wasps are a very interesting- group, for 

 they can be watched building their small or large 

 nests of mud, and forming the little rooms in which 

 they store caterpillars, etc. Their nests are found 

 on the walls of buildings, under verandahs, on win- 

 dow ledges. Others are carpenters, cutting out 

 nests from woody stems, and making little cells in 

 them. They are all "solitary wasps," but social 

 tendencies are perhaps indicated in their grouping- 

 together of cells and providing- food, by hunting 

 for it, for the baby grubs when they hatch in the 

 closed cell. 



One of the largest nests we have seen, about 

 8 inches across, was found under the roof of a ver- 

 andah at Port Hacking. It was smooth and rounded, 

 but of a general oblong shape, and there was an 

 "entrance" in the form of a little funnel. It con- 

 tained many strongly-made mud cells, separated 

 by partitions quarter of an inch in thickness. The 

 adults hatched out and were of the species Abispa 

 splendida. This species can be distinguished by 

 the following characteristics. It has a reddish 

 orange angular pronotum ; the wings are of the 

 same colour but duller and with black tips. The 

 first abdominal segment is black with a rim of 

 orange-red on the lower edge. (Plate 23, Fig. 4.) 

 The petiole is not so marked in this genus, though 



