112 Mr. G. A. J. Rotbney on 



up in Lis mandibles and shake her, then perhaps feeling 

 ashamed of himself, will redouble his caresses and begin 

 the courting over again. I have several times captured 

 them in their marriao;e flio-ht. 



Scolia. — Common in Barrackpore Park in the I'ains; 

 they can often be seen flying along the grass at the edge 

 of the roads, the beautiful iridescence of their wings 

 flashing in the sun. 



Scolia indica, Sauss., and ;S', rnhiginosa, Fab. — Found in 

 the jungle at Pulta. There would come a boom of some 

 large insect, a flash of black and red, and it had dis- 

 appeared with a thud in the low thick scrub, from which 

 it would take much careful beating to rouse and secure. 



Elis marr/incl/a, Klug. — Was very common about Pulta 

 in the early rains, preferring shade to sun. I never found 

 it in the Park. 



Sceliphron violaceum, Fab. — One of the commonest 

 species in India, frequenting the verandahs of our 

 bungalows, and building its little mud-cells on the walls. 



Sceliphron madrasaiiatamim, Fab. — Not so common as 

 molcccc'ifyui, but sufficiently so to attract the attention of 

 any observer. 



Splicx lohatus, Fab. — This is one of the most strikingly 

 handsome of all the Indian Aculeates. It is common 

 throughout the hot Aveather and rains, and makes its nests 

 in the hard ground (being especially fond of bare patches 

 in the grass land of the Park); it provisions its ne?ts with 

 a store of field crickets. Before taking a prisoner in, it will 

 go in and out many times to see that all is secure, and if 

 during this process you remove the cricket a few yards or 

 so from the entrance, it will display great intelligence in 

 finding it by working round and round in gradually in- 

 creasing circles till the circumference at last crosses the 

 cricket, which is always in too stupefied a state to escape. 

 When the females settle on the ground they come with a 

 clash and a clatter like the clank of cavalry, and in the 

 brilliant sunlight suggest ideas of fifteenth-century knights 

 blazing in plate-armour. The males are very fond of the 

 flowers of the castor-oil plant. 



Sphex umhrosus, Christ ; >S'. aundentus, Fab. ; >S^. lutei- 

 p)cnnis, Mosc. — These three species are fairly common about 

 the jungly ground round Pulta, particularly so at the close 

 of the rains. 



Ampulex compressa, Fab. — This is a common species. 



