2 9 o WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



1 6 days after the exit of the male parasites from their 

 bodies. Some were even found hibernating thus. Fox 15 

 found, at Denison, Texas, a nest of P. annular is which 

 measured eleven by sixteen inches. 



The large nest of P. annularis illustrated in figure 52 

 was found overhanging a dry creek-bed near St. Louis. It 

 was almost on edge among the branches, eight feet from 

 the ground, and bore about twenty queens. They were all 

 frightened away by the removal of some of the leaves in 

 order that the nest might be photographed. The nest had 

 probably been built elsewhere, and either the wind or high 

 water had lodged it here in an unusual position apparently 

 without having caused any change in the life of the progeny. 



In one case we noticed a strange phenomenon: one cell 

 in a P. annularis nest contained two eggs. The second egg 

 was additional not merely a misplaced one for the 28 

 cells of the nest contained 29 eggs. Ten days later we 

 noticed, however, that only one egg in this cell was develop- 

 ing; the other seemed not to have hatched. 



One P. annularis returned several times to our out-door 

 dinner table in the country, to eat the juice from a bowl of 

 apple-sauce. It drank long and steadily, standing knee- 

 deep in the juice. 



Miss Murtfelt records the fact that these wasps removed 

 strips of paper from the bags that were used to protect 

 clusters of grapes. After chewing the material into pulp, 

 they carried it away for the building of the nest. Pierce 

 (loc. cit. p. 22) finds that this wasp is the host of three 

 species of stylops. Robertson mentions it as feeding upon 

 various flower-heads, and we have observed it feeding upon 

 flowers of the madeira vine and goldenrod. 



15 Ent. News 7 : 57. 1896. 



