of so?7ie Indian Insects. 63 



inside an old flute, the insect having chosen one of the note-holes 

 for the entrance to the nest. At Mud Point, Saugor, I observed 

 several of these nests already built and sealed up ; others the 

 Eumenes were storing with caterjiillars, while some were in progress 

 of completion. I took down one of the sealed nests and broke it 

 open to examine the interior, and was surprised to see a species of 

 Pelopceus come out lively and strong, an insect not known to subsist 

 on the stores of others, as this fact seems to prove. This Pelopceus 

 was a male, with a black body, excepting the peduncle, which was 

 yellow ; two spots behind the head, and a third a little behind the 

 junction of the wings with the trunk, are of the same colour. 

 The antennae are black. Legs black and yellow. Wings of a 

 brownish yellow cast, with the tips gradually growing dusky. 

 Length half an inch. A female of the same species in my posses- 

 sion is seven tenths of an inch long. The species of Eumenes 

 whose ceconomy is detailed above is about an inch long. Body 

 chestnut brown, with an undefined black band across the first joint 

 of the abdomen beyond the peduncle. Antennae and legs of a 

 chestnut brown, but rather lighter than the body. Wings yellowish 

 brown, with the tips dusky. 



Pelopceus has never been considered a parasite, but as building 

 nests resembling those of Eumenes. My observations go far to 

 prove that they are parasitic, and I presume that in former descrip- 

 tions the Pelopceus has been described as the architect of the nest, 

 instead of Eumenes, the real constructor : this error might easily 

 occur to those who had not witnessed the Eumenes at work. 



Having frequently noticed cases of an oblong oval shape attached 

 to the walls of rooms in the houses at Calcutta, and supposing them to 

 be the abode of the larva of some insect, I opened some of them and 

 inclosed others in a bottle. In some of the specimens examined a 

 chrysalis was found, in others a larva, and in others merely exuviae 

 of a chrysalis. From those in the bottle there proceeded in time 

 some small moths. The cases are generally attached to walls or 

 partitions by silken threads of considerable tenacity, and are to be 

 seen sometimes pendent from a beam or the ceiling. They are 

 half an inch long by one fifth of an inch broad in the widest part, 

 nearly flat, the longitudinal and transverse sections being lens- 

 shaped, and margined along the sides. They are open at both 

 ends, although attached to the walls at one end, the attachment 

 being so managed as not to stop the entrance. The inside is lined 

 with a silky substance, the outside covered with small grains, re- 

 sembling sand. The larva when full grown is about three tenths of 

 an inch long, with the head and first three segments of the body 



