166 HYMENOPTERA. 



and the claws are simple and slender, clearly indicative of a 

 peculiar habit differing from its congeners, and how admirably 

 is this illustrated in the nest before us?" 



Sphegid^ Latreille. Smith defines this family as having 

 "the posterior margin of the prothorax not prolonged back- 

 wards to the insertion of the wings, and anteriorly produced 

 into a neck, with the abdomen petiolated." The very fossorial 

 legs are long and spiny, the posterior pair being of unusual 

 length. The mandibles are large, curved, narrow, and acute, 

 the base not being toothed externally, and the antenna are 

 long and filiform. The species are often gaily colored, being 

 ornamented with black and red, brown and red, or are entirely 

 black, or blue. They love the sunshine, are very active, rest- 

 less in their movements, and have a powerful sting. 



The sting of these and other wasps which store up insects for 

 their young, penetrates the nervous centres and paralj'zes the 

 victim without depriving it of life, so that it lives many days. 

 A store of living food is thus laid up for the young wasp. 

 After being stung the caterpillars will transform into chrys- 

 alids, though too Aveak to change to moths. Mr. Gueinzius, 

 who resides in South Africa, observes that "large spiders 

 and caterpillars became immediately motionless on being stung, 

 and I cannot helj) thinking that the poisonous acid of Ilymen- 

 optera has an antiseptic and preserving property ; for cater- 

 pillars and locusts retain their colors weeks after being stung, 

 ar,d this, too, in a moist situation under a burning sun." 



These insects either make their nests in the sand, or, like the 

 succeeding family, are "mud-daubers," building their cells of 

 mud and plastering them on walls, etc. 



The tropical genus Ampidex is more closely allied to the 

 preceding family than the other genera. The species are 

 brassy green. Dr. G. A. Perkins has described in the Ameri- 

 can Naturalist, vol. 1, p. 293, the habits of a wasp, probably 

 the Ampidex Sihirica Fabr., which inhabits Sierra Leone, and 

 oviposits in the body of the cockroach. The dead bodies of 

 the cockroaches are often found with the empty cocoon of tlie 

 wasp occupying the cavit}^ of the abdomen. 



A species of this genus, abundant at Zanzibar at certain sea- 



