i;2 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



Adams 2 finds the Tachinid fly Metopia leucocephala Rossi 

 hovering over their burrows. 



To see a Priononyx intent upon the herculean task of 

 making her burrow and burying the grasshopper, one can 

 hardly imagine her blithely refreshing herself among the 

 blossoms. These wasps seem to feed upon a variety of 

 plants ; we have seen them flying from flower to flower, sip- 

 ping the nectar of blue veronica, iron-weed and Melilotus, 

 and a little later in the season, early September, we saw 

 them with extended tongue, lazily sipping nectar from the 

 florets of white snake-root. 



On several occasions, we followed the clue of a pile of 

 characteristic chips on the bare ground. By scooping away 

 the surface soil under these mounds to the depth of an inch 

 or two, through the plug of 'earth which the mother wasp 

 had packed firmly in the mouth of the burrow, we discov- 

 ered the nest of Priononyx. 



The form of the burrow is generally uniform, similar to 

 those shown in the diagram (fig. 39). The holes, about 

 three-eighths inch in diameter, go downward at a gentle 

 slope and gradually curve until they end in a horizontal 

 chamber. These chambers are not always distinct; fre- 

 quently they are little more than a continuation of the gal- 

 lery. The burrows are three and one-half to four inches in 

 total length, and, at the deepest point, about one and one-half 

 inches below the surface of the ground. We have never 

 chanced to find a Priononyx burrow of the form described 

 by Williams, 3 a distinctly L-shaped nest about two inches 

 deep and two and a half inches long. There has been very 

 little variation in the form of the fifteen nests which we have 

 excavated. 



The Priononyx nests which have come under our observa- 



2 Bull. 111. St. Lab. Nat. Hist, n: 195. 1915. 



3 Kansas Univ. Sci. Bull. 8 : PI. 33, fig. 2. 



