THE BEMBICENE WASPS 37 



the BembLv population must have been exterminated, for 

 afterward the country roundabout was scoured in search 

 of them, but no trace of their having settled elsewhere was 

 ever found, although just across the road from the lot was 

 a large tract of vacant land thoroughly suitable to their 

 needs. In the two colonies in corners of the baseball dia- 

 mond the numbers are becoming fewer and fewer, so if 

 they do not migrate they will probably soon meet with ex- 

 termination. 



BembLv spinolae Lep. [S. A. Rohwer]. 



Other observers, notably the Peckhams 6 and Parker, 7 have 

 already written upon the life of this species, so we offer no 

 new data excepting a contribution of one or two eccentric 

 circumstances. 



One burrow which we discovered on Howard's Hill on 

 September 25, 1916, seemed externally a typical BembLv 

 hole. It pierced the earth diagonally, and much loose sand 

 was strewn about the mouth of the burrow. It went down 

 thus for an inch and a half, then turned abruptly at right 

 angles, and from there it continued downward in a spiral, 

 so that the pocket was directly beneath the entrance. The 

 total length of this spiral burrow was six inches, and the 

 terminus was three inches below the surface. We saw no 

 obstructions in the soil which would necessitate such con- 

 tortions in the channel. In the normal nest (according to 

 Peckhams) the tunnel goes down obliquely to a point from 

 three to five inches below the surface of the ground. 



At the bottom of the hole we found the mother Bembix 

 together with a medium-sized, healthy larva, thirty large 



6 Bull. Wise. Geol. & Nat. Hist. Surv. 2: 58-72. 1898. 



7 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 52: 127-131. 1917. 



