380 



TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



Photo by P. O. H. 



FIG. 127. DETAILED VIEWS OF EARTHEN JUGS MADE BY THE RED EUMENES 

 Top, natural; lower one-half natural size. 



maining unfolded, as though now obsolete. There is a 

 strange motion to what might be termed the larva's lips, as 

 the silvery fluid oozes out. The performance reminds me of 

 a person rinsing the mouth and at the same time spurting out 

 the water. The fluid hardens in contact with the air into a 

 tough protecting lining. This process is followed by the 

 spinning of a delicate cocoon, rather flat and oval in shape, 

 which encloses the larva, and also excludes the excretia 

 which, as I have said, the caterpillars were still capable of 

 passing off. There are now three layers between the outer 

 world and the larva. The jug becomes a fort in which the 

 grub lies, protected by a wall of masonry and hardened mu- 

 cous, followed by a covering of silken thread. 



Eight days after spinning, pupation takes place. It is 

 an oddly shaped creature which emerges from the larval 

 body. In color it is lemon yellow. The thorax is horizontal, 

 the petiole or waist oblique and the abdomen more or less 

 perpendicular. This curious shape is entirely lost in the 

 mature wasp, which is a normal insect, but its evidence in the 

 pupa, which requires a much broader space than the common 



