4S Some Solitary Wasps of Texas. 



dibles two more of the spider's legs. This was done very quickly; 

 after one, two or three trials the leg snapped off like the end of a 

 wire snaps off when a pair of nippers is applied. Tlie spider was 

 then taken up a second time but again set down owing to the inter- 

 ference of the remaining legs. A few more legs were again nipped 

 off and this process repeated a number of times until the legs were 

 finally cut off all around, only the palpi of all the appendages being 

 left 



(b) Agenia Sdbcorticalis (Walsh), and Agenia Mellipes 



(Say). 



In contrast to A. accepta and her ally just considered, A. mel- 

 lipes and suhcorticalis have a sombre hue in perfect accord with 

 the dark recesses where they build their adobe cells in secret. 

 Mellipes is metallic blue, almost black in color and measures about 

 three-eighths of an inch in length ; subcorticales is somewhat larger 

 and is distinguished by her red hind femora. 



My only acquaintance among the members of the species mellipes 

 betrayed the location of her home by the directness of her advance 

 toward it. Under a leaf on the ground in the angle formed by 

 t^\'o roots of a large elm tree was the wasp's nesting place and 

 thither she was making trip after trip carrying pellets of mud for 

 the construction of her nest. Like Alyson melleus, mellipes has the 

 habit of alighting on the ground a little distance from the nest 

 and covering this latter i^art of her journey on foot. She enters 

 the archway that conceals her nest without hesitation but is more 

 cautious on departure, looking out on the world and waving her 

 long antennae before darting away on her errand. The wasp paid 

 no attention to me; I was nothing to her, nor were, apparently, any 

 of the other objects of her environment. For I took away some 

 stems of poison ivy that obstructed my view and endangered 

 my health; I even pushed back the leaf that covered the nest 

 in order to observe her work — all this, without affecting her 

 comings and goings in the least. Agenia was building her 

 third cell; and since thirty to forty more trips are needed 

 to complete each one, her familiarity with the surroundings finds 

 an easy explanation. From 4 :30 to 5 :15, July 31, mellipes made 

 fifteen trips requiring from one to five minutes each. The little 

 round pellets of mud which she carried home in her mandibles were 

 added to the cylindrical wall until it had been built out to about 



