60 Psyche [April 



piece of food held down against its ventral abdominal segments 

 beneath its head. On June 29 it started spinning, but did not 

 finish its cocoon until July 2. Six days later it pupated and on 

 July 24 shed its pupal skin, emerging the next day. In captivity 

 this wasp, a female, lived until August 22, nearly a month after 

 emerging. The lengths of its stages were as follows: egg, 2 days; 

 larva, 15 days; pupa, 16 days. 



Ancistrocerus albophaleratus de Saussure. 



Two nests built by wasps of this species came under obser- 

 vation. Ashmead (1894) records it as having been bred from an 

 oak gall in Massachusetts. 



Nest No. 14. This nest was started July 4 at about 4 P. M. 

 The nest builder was observed rather constantly until July 10, 

 when she was found dead within the entrance of her uncompleted 

 nest. The preceding day had been rainy and may have brought 

 about her untimely death, but the somewhat erratic construction 

 of her nest may indicate that she was at the end of her resources. 



Nest No. 21. This nest of albophaleratus was commenced 

 July 19 and finished five days later. During a cool, wet day the 

 wasp was inadvertently knocked from her nest, while she was 

 apparently sleeping and lost in the grass. Although she re- 

 turned the next day, her absence may have given an opportunity 

 for a fly to enter her nest and deposit eggs, the larvae from which 

 later destroyed the entire nest and its contents. 



The tube in which nest no. 14 was built had an inside 

 diameter of 7.5 mm. Its inner end being completely closed, the 

 wasp built no basal partition. The first cell was 18 mm. long 

 and contained about 14 caterpillars; the second, 15 mm. in 

 length, contained only six; the third cell, 16 mm. long, was 

 empty; the fourth cell had a very imperfect basal partition, in 

 which spaces had been left and was 10 mm. long. There was an 

 egg suspended in this cell, but no caterpillars had been provided. 

 It was in this cell that the wasp was found dead. A rim of mud 

 about the periphery of its outer end showed that an attempt 



