| rahe Saath ees oe Cart Saat ic iL a ae esha RE 
aed tt a r at a) 1h Bg 2 : 
lv 
build their elliptical pot-like cells in the same way. The ends 
of the ellipse are begun first, then the top gradually comes into 
being, and then the bottom is brought up to meet round a 
small hole left for insertion of egg and prey. In the case of 
E. maaillosa, a sessile funnel is made around this hole at the 
last building visit, but the other Eumenid gives hers a distinct 
neck at the last visit but one, and a graceful disc is added 
at the last visit. 
“JT have not observed #. mazillosa laying her egg, but 
have sketched lepelletiert in the act. Having completed the 
funnel, she turned and faced the wall on which her nest 
was built, and inserted the posterior of her abdomen into the 
funnel, curving it up towards the ceiling of the cell and moving 
it up and down, but never taking it out. The first attempt, 
which lasted about twenty seconds, seemed unsuccessful ; 
but at the second, which lasted thirty seconds, she managed 
to attach the egg, and it could be seen hanging down in front 
of the centre of the hole. She then flew away slowly as if 
the operation had tired her. Later she returned with a 
caterpillar of Catopsilia florella, which lives upon the Sennas— 
Cassia obovata and acutifolia. The cells of this wasp are 
somewhat smaller than those of EL. mazillosa, but both stock 
their cells with caterpillars of this white butterfly, and in 
those which I have opened the number has been three. These 
caterpillars are imperfectly paralysed and can wriggle a 
little, cling to the surface on which they stand, void excrement 
from food eaten before they were stung, and, in some cases, 
pupate—though the larval skin often gets caught at either 
end, and bends them into the shape of a bow. The longest 
time that a paralysed caterpillar from the cell of HL. mazillosa 
remained fresh was nine days, so that the egg and larval stages 
of the wasp could not well have lasted much longer. £. 
maxillosa took twenty-four to twenty-six days to emerge, 
but only parasites did so from the cells of F. lepelletieri. 
‘“* When the egg has been laid and the cell stocked the wasp 
closes the hole, destroying the funnel completely. The 
surface is smoothed over level with the rest of the cell, but 
the difference in the age of the mud still reveals the spot to the 
human eye. When all the cells are finished both wasps 
