344 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



inch in length, and the other three cells were one and one- 

 half inches in total length. 



The next nest opened was unlike any of the others; it 

 had but a single cell and no air-chamber. We had watched 

 the mother-wasp close the burrow with mud, and expected 

 to find the egg quite new. But the larva was already 

 hatched and was beginning to partake of its supply of pro- 

 visions (thirteen caterpillars identified by S. B. Fracker 

 as Exertema sp.). This is significant in showing that the 

 nest is not fully provisioned before the egg is laid, but the 

 egg is deposited before or during provisioning. 



She does not make her burrow by kicking out the soil, 

 but, like certain species of Odynerus, she carries water, 

 softens the earth into mud which she gathers into a pellet, 

 carries out and discards. She enters her hole head first, 

 gets her load, backs out and flies backward for about six 

 inches, then drops the load and re-enters. We once counted 

 that with one mouthful of water she brought out nine 

 pellets of mud; the succeeding mouthful made exactly the 

 same number. Another took out six loads of mud in three 

 minutes. 



The holes are left open during the proprietor's absence. 

 A large, blue cuckoo-bee once entered a cell and remained 

 within for several minutes. 



Thus we see her, a versatile creature who can adapt her- 

 self to various conditions with equal success. 



Anclstrocerus tigris Sauss. [S. A. Rohwer]. 



A mud nest was found on the outside of a schoolhouse at 

 Lake View, Kansas. The nest seemed newly-made, and, 

 from its appearance, we thought that it belonged to a 

 Chalybion or a Sceliphron. When we broke it open, how- 



