76 
Inglefield, Lafayette, Lewis, and Washington, Ind., and at Battle Creek, 
Mich., adults issued between June 28 and July 11; from cocoons collected 
by J. "A. Hyslop and H. L. Parker at Hagerstown, Md., adults issued 
June 26 to June 29; and Mr. H. E. Smith obtained an adult as early as 
June 18 from a cocoon collected at Wellington, Kan. 
In addition to the localities already given, E. 5-cincta has been 
collected by Mr. Ed. Foster at Abita Springs, La., during July and 
August according to Mr. G. N. Wolcott, and listed from Missouri by 
Phil. Rau, who observed the “sleeping” habits of the males (58), and 
from New Jersey. 
The adults feed during the day on the nectar of sweet clover flowers 
almost exclusively. In one exceptional case R. J. Kewley and F. A, 
Fenton, of the Bureau of Entomology, found several individuals feeding 
on wild aster flowers. Collections were made on sweet clover flowers 
during the season of 1914 at Lafayette, Ind., by R. J. Kewley, A. F. 
Satterthwait, and the writer, and during 1915 by Kewley. The first 
collections were made July 9 and the last August 31, except in 1915, 
when one isolated collection was made as late as September 28. It is 
evident from these recorded observations, made at all hours of the day, 
that a majority of the females frequent flowers during the morning 
hours. Ordinarily the female wasps begin to appear about 8:00 a. m., 
or a little earlier, and until 10:00 a. m. scarcely a male can be found 
flying. After 10:00 a. m. the males are found in increasing numbers, 
and the females in decreasing numbers, very few of the latter being 
found during the afternoon. Ninety-five per cent. were of one species, 
Elis 5-cincta, but occasionally specimens of E. atriventris and E. inter- 
rupta were taken. At night the males have the habit of resting in 
“colonies” on the tops of weeds and other vegetation. 
All of the species of Elis here considered are similar in general 
appearance and are well illustrated in Figure 13. The black thorax is 
more or less distinctly marked with yellow, the abdomen black and 
conspicuously marked with transverse yellow bands, and the wings are 
transparent and more or less shaded with brown. The sexes are readily 
distinguished, the male wasps having a more slender body and a prom- 
inent ‘curved, hook-like stylus (Fig. 13, a) at the apex of the abdomen, 
which is absent in the female. The cocoon (Pl. TV3.Figy 10) 1a) is 
similar for all species, differing only in size. It is uniformly elongate- 
elliptical, chocolate-brown, rather smooth, the inner lining thin and 
parchment-like, and these characters readily distinguish it from the 
ovate, woolly, paler brown Tiphia cocoons. The adult wasp issues by 
cutting a hole in one side near one end of the cocoon. 
We have never reared parasites from Elis, but Mr. Otto Swezey 
(72) reared a bombyliid (Chrysanthrax fulvolirta Wied.; Pl. IV, Fig. 
12) and two mutillids (a male Mutilla castor Blake and a female MV. 
ferrugata Fabr.) from cocoons of E. sexcincta (==E. 
at Urbana, Il. 
