100 Psyche [June 



records, and those of Holmgren, this ecitonophile seems to be char- 

 acteristic of hamatum armies and widely distributed, though the 

 number of individuals in a colony is not large. 



Mimopria is undoubtedly parasitic on its host, probably on 

 the immature phases. Like many other ecitonophiles it closely 

 resembles the ant both in form and in manner of progression and 

 in the possession of some quality that ingratiates it with the host. 

 Eciton being altogether carnivorous it is possible that Mimopria, 

 like certain other myrmecophiles, takes no food during the imagi- 

 nal stage of its existence. 



SPHEX OVERCOMING OBSTACLES. 



By C. H. Turner, Ph.D., 

 Sumner High School, St. Louis, Mo. 



The front yard of one of the public schools of Wellston, Mis- 

 souri is bordered on the south by a low picket fence and on the 

 west by a four-foot fence constructed of upright boards placed 

 close together. Between the school house and the front fence 

 there is a fifteen foot lawn. About ten feet west of the board fence 

 and at about the same distance from the street as the school there 

 is a wooden cottage the first floor of which is about four feet above 

 the ground. The space beneath this house is walled in so as to 

 form a cellar. 



At about noon, June 28, 1911, 1 discovered a digger wasp (Sphex 

 sp. ?) moving backward and dragging a spider across this school 

 lawn. The wasp continued her westward course until she had 

 backed into the wooden fence. Then, after depositing the spider 

 in the grass, Sphex flew over the fence and descended obliquely 

 towards the northwest until she had reached the door of the cellar 

 mentioned in the flrst paragraph. After pausing there a moment, 

 the wasp returned to the school yard, picked up the spider and 

 began to climb backwards up the fence. Everything moved along 

 smoothly until the upper scantling to which the fence boards were 

 attached was reached. (Inequalities in the lawn made it possible 

 for the wasp to mount the lower scantling.) Sphex tried and tried 

 but she could not back over that scantling with her burden. She 



