30 Some Solitary Wasps of Texas. 



' trade so far beyond the abdomen as to give it tlie appearance of be- 

 ing attached to the sting. 



About the noon hour on a hot, sunny day, when the impulse to 

 hunt is at its height, Bembex can.be seen following her favorite oc- 

 cupation. One would suppose that where flies are most plentiful 

 there the wasp would most often be seen. And this is found to be a 

 fact. The hunting and stinging habit of Bemhex may readily be 

 observed by watching a pile of horse-droppings near a Bembex col- 

 ony. Flies collect and a wasp soon comes along to collect flies. 

 She buzzes furiously about and the timid flies instinctively creep 

 away as if to hide from their hereditary mortal enemy. The wasp 

 makes a dozen or more circuits in the wildest zig-zag fashion darting 

 again and again at flies on the dung-heap. Flights of this kind 

 alternate with periods of rest on the sand near by, where the wasp 

 stops to wash her face and smooth her wings while the motion of 

 her abdomen betokens the rapid breathing occasioned by the stren- 

 uous exercise. After a number of trials, usually many, Bembex 

 succeeds in pouncing on a fly. Quick as a flash the wasp is off for 

 her nest with her victim. The operation is performed so quickly 

 that it is utterly impossible to determine how the fly is captured 

 and stung. I therefore captured a fly and pinned it down. Bembex 

 returned, took hold of the fly with her legs and at the same time 

 arched her abdomen under and stung the fly on the under surface 

 of the thorax. The fly failing to yield to her efforts, the wasp im- 

 mediately rose, caught sight of another fly and succeeded in cap- 

 turing it. After a few moments she was back and attacked my fly as 

 before. I then removed the pin. The wasp took up the dead fly four 

 times, rejecting it each time after having risen several feet in the air. 

 It did not take her long to find out that there was something wrong 

 with her capture. 



A wasp will return to the same hunting grounds imtil her larder 

 is filled for the day. I have seen one wasp carry off as many as eight 

 flies in quick succession. A number of times, too, I have amused 

 myself by allowing a wasp to take a dead fly from my hand, so that 

 I could feel the active little creature as well as observe its every 

 movement. Two wasps of a species cannot agree to hunt together 

 at the same place — they will quarrel in angry tones until one will 

 ■withdraw and priority seems, in vespine races, to be the claim usu- 

 ally recognized. 



But the tiny black Notoglossa with her red-tipped abdomen will 



