58 



leg movements and may also move and twitch the body a little > 

 when seized with the forceps, however, this imusnal stimulus 

 causes it to wriggle vigorously. 



On the morning of October 5, 1918, I was able to ob- 

 serve the field habits of this wasp on the Station grounds. 

 The day was warm and sunny and in addition to Epyris, the 

 introduced Scolia manilae Ashmead and DoUchiiriis sftnttoiii 

 (Ashmead) were also flying along the edges of an area planted 

 to sugar cane. Male Epyris were the more abundant and evi- 

 dentlv on the lookout for emerging females, l)ut once in a 

 while one of the latter could be seen flying low from place to 

 place and hurriedly running beneath and among the superficial 

 clods of earth in search of her prey. Finally I came upon 

 one of these wasps circling about a spot and at last locating her 

 paralyzed victim, a Gonocephalwn larva which she had evi- 

 dently wedged in between two small lumps of dirt. She seized 

 it by the head end and, slinging it over her back, so to s]ieak, 

 dragged it into a hole nearby, wasp and grub entering at the 

 same time. Later I could find nothing of wasp and prey on 

 digging iu the s]iot. T soon located another hunting Epiiri<, 

 and being provided with a Gonocephalum, larva I carefully 

 placed one of these alongside a small clod of earth under 

 which Epyris was for the moment hunting; she issued there- 

 from very shortly almost exactly at the spot where lay her 

 natural prey, still ''playing possum". The wasp came imme- 

 diately to attention, crawled carefully on the back of the larva 

 and seizing it by the head with her mandibles curled her body 

 around the thorax of the now vigorously squirming victim, and 

 soon immobilized it with her sting. 'No preliminaries foUow^ed 

 as in many other w^asps, the grub was seized without further 

 ado apparently by a palpus and borne along rapidly on the 

 wasp's back. The little inscect was not quite half as long as 

 her heavy booty which being carried with the back up nearly 

 hid the wasp from view and made it appear as if the Gono- 

 cephalum Avas making headway under its own steam. After 

 traveling thus rather aimlesslv for eight or ten feet, the 



