WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



she resented your intrusion into her privacy. After a 

 little she will come up again and will learn to tolerate 

 you, but at the least movement on your part, almost at 

 the winking of an eyelid, she will disappear. 

 Our four representatives of this genus all prey upon 

 beetles that are injurious to 

 vegetation, and therefore de- 

 serve the gratitude of agri- 

 culturists. Nigrescens, with 

 her pale grayish bands, is a 

 very trying wasp to deal with. 

 We had seen her flying about 

 in the garden for weeks be- 

 fore we succeeded in track- 

 ing her home, and when we 

 did succeed she was so late 

 about getting up in the morn- 

 ing, stayed away from home 

 so many hours at a time, and 

 went to bed so early in the 

 afternoon, that we were not 

 well repaid for watching her 

 nest all day. Fumipennis, 

 large and handsome, with a broad yellow band at the 

 front of the abdomen, is another wasp that has no 

 142 



NEST OF CERCERIS NIGRESCENS 



