in SPHEGIDAE MIMESIDES \2J 



interest owing to two tacts, viz. that it is not considered that the 

 Cerceris as a rule extends its range far from home, and that the 

 specimens were liberated in a public street, and took the direc- 

 tion of home at once. 



Fhilanthns cqnvorns is one of the best known of the members 

 of this sub -family owing to its habit of using the domestic 

 honey-bee as the food for its offspring. In many respects its 

 habits resemble those of Cerceris ornata, except that the Pliil- 

 anthvs apparently kills the bee at once, while in the case of the 

 Cerceris, the Halictus it entombs does not perish for several days. 

 The honey-bee, when attacked by the Fliilantlivs, seems to be 

 almost incapable of defending itself, for it appears to ha^'e no 

 power of finding with its sting the weak places in the armour 

 of its assailant. According to Fabre, it has no idea of the l^liil- 

 antiius being the enemy of its race, and associates with its 

 destroyer on amicable terms previous to the attack being made on 

 it. The Fhihnitlu's stings the bee on the under-surface of the 

 mentum ; afterwards the poor bee is subjected to a violent process 

 of kneading, by which the honey is forced from it, and this the 

 destroyer greedily indjibes. The bee is then carried to the nest 

 of the Plhilanthus. This is a burrow in the ground; it is of 

 unusual depth — about a yard according to Fabre — and at its ter- 

 mination are placed the cells for the reception of the young ; in 

 one of these cells the bee is placed, and an egg laid on it : as 

 the food in this case is really dead, not merely in a state of 

 auiesthesia, the PMlanthus does not complete the store of food 

 for its larvae all at once, but waits until the latter has consumed 

 its first stock, and then the mother-wasp supplies a fresh store 

 of food. In this case, therefore, as in Bembex, the mother really 

 tends the offspring. 



Sub-Fam. 9. Mimesides. — Small Inseeis with j^edicellate Jrind 

 body, the pedicel not cylindTic ; mandibles not excised ex- 

 terncdly ; inner margin of eyes not concave ; middle tibia 

 %vith one sjjur ; wings loith ttvo, or three, submarginal cells. 



Mimesides is here considered to include the Pemphredonides 

 of some authors. Mimesides proper comprises but few forms, and 

 those known are small Insects. Fsen concolov and P. atratus 

 form their nests in hollow stems, and the former provisions its 

 nest with Homopterous Insects of the family Psyllidae. Litthi 



