152 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



Notogonidea 1 argentata Bve. [S. A. Rohwer]. 



The appearance of Notogonidea argentata early in the 

 spring has long puzzled us. On the morning of April 7, 

 1915, we saw at Cliff Cave perhaps two dozen of them on 

 the sunny side of the bluffs, apparently doing nothing in 

 particular, resting, strolling or flying about in a sheltered 

 spot in the sunshine. A little later in the day, we found the 

 same behavior in a group in a sunny southern exposure. It 

 was surprising to find them out so early, and we still wonder 

 whether they had hibernated or had emerged so early from 

 their original burrows. 



But although they were seen thus in groups in the first 

 days of spring, they do not continue the gregarious habit, 

 but work singly during the summer months. 



On July 25 we fell to watching one as she was walking and 

 running in and out among the short grass along the roadside 

 in an open field. She soon darted into a hole in a small slop- 

 ing bank. The burrow was shallow, for we could see her 

 little black-and-grey body only a little way beyond the aper- 

 ture. As she worked, she occasionally pushed out the 

 loose soil behind her and it fell out of her doorway and 

 rolled down the miniature hillside. Presently she left her 

 work in the burrow and walked to and fro around its open- 

 ing; it was not long before we realized that she was not 

 making her hole, but was at work filling it up. She did not 

 try to put back the dirt that had been pushed out, because 

 that had rolled down the slope, nor did she carry it back in 

 her mandibles. Instead, she picked up pellets, fragments 

 of stems, dried leaves, and any available debris that lay 

 about, and dropped them into the hole. All of these she 



7 Mr. Rohwer writes that the name Notogonia by which this wasp 

 is generally known has been changed to Notogonidea, since the former 

 name has been used for mollusks. 



