TRACHEATA 385 
species of this family; it makes small rounded cells of mud, 
which it attaches to some plant, very generally 
to heath. In each cell it lays one egg, and 
stores up some provision of honey to serve as 
food for the larva; the cell is then closed. 
Some species of this genus are carnivorous, 
and when this is the case the mother stings 
some caterpillar or other insect larva in the yy. 919, gwmenes 
ventral nerve cord in such a way as to render smithit. 
it motionless without killing it; the imert 
larva is then deposited in the cell to serve as food for the 
erub of the wasp. 
Family MAsSArtDAE—No members of this family occur in 
Fic. 220.—Masaris vespiformis. 
Britain, and the number of genera is small. They construct 
nests in banks of earth, with passages leading down to them. 
Group 3. Fossoria. 
These are sometimes termed digging wasps; they have no 
bend in their antennae, and their legs are elongated. The 
females construct passages in sand or earth, or sometimes in 
wood, and lay their eggs at the end of these tubes. They live 
upon honey and pollen, and either convey fresh food to their 
larvae every day or store up in the tube a sufficient number 
of insects or larvae, paralysed by a sting in the nervous 
aE 
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