CHAPTER XXX 



THE ONE-BANDED DAUBER 



Sceliphron fistularc (Dahlb.) 

 Fig. 133; 9-12 



The physiological phases of the dauber's life history nat- 

 ural]}^ adhere to a set of invariable rules — the egg hatches in 

 a certain length of time, the larva feeds until the spiders in 

 its cell are consumed and in the course of certain definite 

 periods the insect pupates and emerges. Her nest is of clay, 

 her provisions spiders, but otherwise, in the remainder of 

 her nesting activities, this wasp is a creature that follows no 

 rule. Her nursery may be but a single earthen cell or it may 

 boast a group of twelve. It may be fastened to a twig, to 

 the side of a house, to a sheltering stone or on the edge of a 

 narrow shutter slat — one nest is a long flat object humped 

 at one end with additional cells and decorated with strips of 

 variegated clay, another is top-shaped, dull in color with a 

 well defined point, a third is egg-shaped ; still another is but 

 a single grey cell, half circular at one end and quite round 

 at the other. They vary endlessly according to the energy 

 and taste of the individual builder, therefore I cannot de- 

 scribe any one nest as the usual type — I may tell only of the 

 building of a cell. It may be the first room framed in an 

 elaborate plan, or the completed nest of the dauber, but my 

 remarks will apply to any nest. 



Upon a brick pillar supporting the laboratory the wasp 

 laid the corner stone of her nest. Twelve loads of brown 

 mud, tamped out into flat pies, side by side, sufficed for the 

 foundation. The material was carried in little round pellets 

 weighing one-tenth of a gi'am. They were borne in the 

 wasp's mandibles from a moist spot in a flat clearing nearby. 

 Each pellet was tamped and arranged with great care, dur- 



