WOOD-BORING WASPS 135 



All were so small that only with the aid of a magnifying 

 glass could we determine what they were. 



In each case the cocoons were very brittle, and when an 

 injury was by chance made with the forceps, the inmate 

 walked out as if quite ready to emerge. They were all 

 ready to come out into the light of day, but whether they 

 would have emerged normally this season (the date was 

 August 1 1 ) , or whether they would have remained dormant 

 to emerge the next spring we do not know. 



We can find in the publications no biological notes on this 

 species, and only very few on its near relatives. Williams 

 finds that the sister species, Niteliopsis inerme Cress. 2 made 

 a burrow in a small area of bare, clayey soil and filled the 

 hole with pellets of earth. "The tunnel was neat and round, 

 almost vertical and one and one-half inches long and co- 

 hesively silk lined for half its length," which causes him to 

 suspect that its original inhabitant must have been a spider. 

 The bottom of the hole was not enlarged into a cell. It 

 contained five immature green Hemiptera (Caspidae), one of 

 which had a large egg secured at the cephalic end and be- 

 hind the first pair of legs. On the authority of Rohwer, 

 he states that N. fossor was taken with an Orthopterous 

 prey, an immature Oedipode. We see varied behavior here, 

 and the amazing feature is that one of its species should 

 be twig-inhabiting, when the family Larridae is essentially 

 a group with digging propensities. 



Trypoxylon clavatum Say. [S. A. Rohwer]. 



While we have previously 3 classified these wasps as tenants 

 of the abandoned cells of the mud-daubing wasps, and we 



2 Kans. Univ. Sci. Bull. 8: 208. 1913. 

 3 Journ. Animal Behavior 6:' 27-63. 1916. 



