38 Some Solitary Wasps of Texas. 



turn she approaches cautiously and, when just over the nest, drops 

 suddenly upon it. Moreover, she always carries the bug with her 

 middle pair of legs and passes it back to the third pair on entering. 



At 3 :39, the wasp was back again. Her manner of approach this 

 time was quite different than before. Instead of flying directly 

 down toward the nest, she flew back and forth above it in nearly 

 parallel lines like a pendulum with ever shortening oscillations. 

 This manner of approach she employed nearly every time. Other 

 individuals of the species showed a habit approaching this, though 

 not so marked. 



At 4:31, No. 58 came back again, but not straight to the nest. 

 She flew around from bush to bush in the vicinity, hanging from 

 the twigs a minute at a time. Once she allowed me to come close 

 enough to see distinctly that she was hanging upside down by her 

 first and third pairs of legs, while with her middle pair she clasped a 

 small bug, holding it by its interior end, head directed forward. 

 After thus "hanging around" for some minutes, she returned to the 

 nest after her wonted manner. 



The next two days, Sept. 4th and 5th, were also spent in pro- 

 curing provisions. The nights were not spent in the nest ; this was 

 carefully closed at the last departure in the afternoon and the night 

 was spent in other parts. I have seen the species late in the eve- 

 ning dig a shallow nest and crawl into it for the night, closing it 

 from the inside. 



At 5 :33 the wasp brought in her last bug. It was fourteen min- 

 utes this time before she again made her appearance for the reason 

 that she was now making the permanent closure of the nest after 

 the manner of Bernbex helfragei. After the burrow was filled with 

 sand she scratched the sand all around the nest, even climbing to 

 the top of the bank three inches above pulling down the sand. In 

 this way all trace of the nest was obliterated. I immediately dug 

 up the nest. Eighteen bugs were found in the lower, somewhat 

 dilated end. There was no Avasp egg or larva but three large 

 fly-maggots were busy eating the store of food. 



Specimen No. 48 began digging her nest at 9 :15 a. m., Aug. Slst 

 and finished at 10 :55. She, too, made an extensive locality study 

 among the weeds in the vicinity, returning to the nest several times 

 before flying away. She stored five bugs the first day. A parasitic 

 fly, Masiena sp., kept hovering around the nest and twice, when the 

 wasp returned with a bug, the fly flew up four feet or more to meet 



