360 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



found occasional pronounced variations in the type of 

 nests under our own observation. In other instances, the 

 nests described by us were different in certain details from 

 those of the same species described by other writers from 

 other localities. 



Parker tells us that Microbembix first lays the egg and 

 then provisions the nest, while we found one which had 

 brought in five insects and still the egg had not been de- 

 posited. 



A Pompiloides tropicus took a spider, presumably for 

 her young; but when she could not find her nest and de- 

 cided to abandon it, she first made an incision in the body 

 wall and sucked the juices. Some species seem to have 

 quite unvarying habits in the manner of carrying their prey, 

 but Pompiloides marginatus exhibits some degree of varia- 

 tion in this respect; one walked backwards with a spider 

 larger than herself, holding it in a vertical position with 

 her mandibles inserted in the ventral surface between its 

 legs; another grasped the spider by one of its coxae; a 

 third had a spider which was so small that it was well 

 above the ground, yet she walked backwards with it with an 

 air of being obliged to exert herself ; still others flew back- 

 wards with their prey. 



Wasps are nectar- feeding insects, yet we find P. tropicus 

 and P. marginatus sometimes indulging in animal food. 

 Both species of Pompiloides sting with varying intensities; 

 sometimes the prey is stung to death, sometimes the victim 

 lingers for some days, or in other instances it recovers. 



P. scelestus introduces a novel method of removing the 

 soil from her burrow by dropping her forelegs to form a 

 rake and then walking backwards, thus dragging out the 

 soil, which is usually kicked under the body. 



Priocnemis pompilus is not a stickler for conventionality; 

 she takes such prey as she can get, uses such holes as she 



