~ ~ WASPS. 189 



it can be seen when the wasp curls its body round. 

 Six adults emerged and four pupae were found in 

 four other cells, so that there were ten cells in 

 the nest. They were large and oval in shape. At 

 the narrower end there was a little circular cap 

 or lid. The excrement was shut off at the broader 

 end of the cell by the larva spinning a floor of a 

 silken membrane. This membrane was continued all 

 round the cell and adhered to the wall like wall- 

 paper, but one could tear it off like a strip of cloth. 

 Within the cell was the naked pupa, and the last 

 moult-skin of the larva. It is interesting to notice 

 the difference in this eumenid wasp to that of the 

 fossore mud-dauber Pelopaeus. In the . latter the 

 cocoon covering is not attached to the wall, but is a 

 brittle papery structure immediately round the pupa, 

 so that when the cell is broken the naked pupa is 

 hidden by the cocoon, whereas in Abispa, the 

 eumenid wasp, when the cell was broken across the 

 naked pupa was at once seen, and the cell had the 

 appearance of a bare little room. In a mass of 

 the excrement in one of the cells, seen when one 

 tore off the "floor-lining" at the larger end, there 

 was a cocoon of a fly which was shut out with the 

 ,. excrement. The fly was dead within the cocoon. 



I The cells of the nest were very strongly built 

 and of larger pellicles of earth than is seen in many 

 pests ; one would expect this from the large size 

 hi the wasp. Also on the outer side the cells were 

 Protected by three or four layers of mud (Plate 23, 

 pJ^ig. 2, a, b), so that this solid part of the nest had a 



