340 . WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



completed or were completing their development at about 

 this time and were ready to emerge. When taken from their 

 cocoons in the twig and placed on cotton saturated with 

 sweetened water, they immediately partook eagerly of the 

 nourishment. 



Another 0. foraminatus was seen one June day carrying 

 a dark gray caterpillar into an old log smoke-house. She 

 hid it in a burrow in the lowermost log, and then sealed 

 the hole with mud. 



It was impossible to investigate the nests of this species, 

 to see whether they, too, suffer from the ravages of para- 

 sites. On more than one occasion, however, we saw Chry- 

 sis bees, Chrysis (Hexachrysis) intricata Br. [S. A. Roh- 

 wer] flying about the pile of wood wherein the wasps 

 nested, as if looking for the burrows of some host; hence 

 we should not be at all surprised if they sometimes meddled 

 in the homes of O. foraminatus also. Pierce finds the 

 females to be the host of the twisted-wing parasite. Strep- 

 siptera. 



Robertson found 0. foraminatus females to go from 

 flower to flower of Pentstemon laevigatus Solond. and, 

 "turning to the base of the tube, cut a hole in one side 

 with her sharp jaws and insert her tongue, then she cut a 

 hole in the other side and again inserted her tongue. The 

 nectar is lodged on each side of the base of the sterile fila- 

 ment, and the wasp showed remarkable intelligence in mak- 

 ing a hole on each side." We saw them repeatedly feeding 

 at the flowers of Melilotus alba, and Robertson records 

 various other flowers upon which they feed. 



Ancistrocerus fulvipes Sauss. [S. A. Rohwer]. 



This wasp, which we had previously observed entering 

 holes in logs, was seen at the edge of a corn-field near 



