Some Solitary Wasps of Texas. ^ 



Monedula's nest is the largest digger-wasp nest I know. The 

 entrance, seen from above, has the form of an arch which measures 

 about an inch across the base and three-fourths of an inch in height. 

 Kg. 7 shows the wasp just crawling forth from her nest. The nest 

 is a cylindrical tube more or less bent. It is three to five-eighths 

 of an inch in diameter and runs down in a gentle slope for eighteen 

 inches to a slight dilatation, the chamber, nine or ten inches below 

 the surface. Fig. 21 is a photograph of a nest in section. It shows 

 at about its middle point a rather abrupt turn to the left. 



If the nest has been closed, Monedula opens it without dropping 

 her prey which she may happen to be carrying home. If the fly is 

 accidentally dropped it is always discarded, even carried off .to a 

 distance and flung away. 



This fly-catcher, like the other fly-catchers of the family, stings 

 to kill its victim. Every fly that I examined was dead, even those 

 just brought home and dropped before the entrance. 



(b.) ISTotes on the Stinging Habits of Tachysptex Texanus, 



Ck., Bembex Texanus, Cr. and Notoglossa 



(OxYBELus) Amebic AN A, Eob. 



It has been supposed of a number of fly-catchers that they pounce 

 upon their victim in mid-air. This seems to have been the case with 

 a specimen of T. texanus that come under my observation. I was 

 busy working in the sand when I heard a light buzz at my right, 

 Tachyptex was inflicting the death-sting on a fly of the domestic 

 species, much larger than herself, and the two had dropped to the 

 ground from above. Possibly the fly had been attacked while rest- 

 ing on a branch of a near-by tree but circumstances pointed rather 

 to the conclusion that the struggle had begun with both on the 

 wing. The fly lay helpless on its back and the wasp lay across the 

 fly's thorax curled around the left side with her sting fixed in the 

 fly's sternum. I placed the tow in a collecting-bottle with some sand. 

 For two minutes the wasp held the fly impaled on her sting while 

 she spent some time washing her face and antennae. She also 

 walked around in the bottle, still carrying the fly, until she discov- 

 ered that she was imprisoned, when she dropped her victim and flew 

 excitedly around. 



This observation recalls Fabre's assertion that Oxyhelus carries 

 home the flies impaled on the sting. The Peckhams, however, found 

 that the wasp holds the fly with her hind legs and allows it to pro- 



