CHAPTER IV 



THE WHITE-FOOTED WASP 



Trypoxylon leucotrichium, Rohmer 



AN alert business-like insect, deep steel blue with a white 

 band encircling each of her hind tarsi, the white-footed 

 wasp is readily recognized. She inhabits the hot open 

 trails where bamboo grass has been slashed in clearing, 

 leaving here and there a severed hollow stem hanging in mid-air and 

 supported by the plant's shriveled leaves, which catch among other 

 foliage. These hollow tubes supply the insect's favorite nesting sites, 

 unapproachable from below except by winged enemies. 



The reed which the wasp had chosen had been severed by a knife 

 slash so that its end was sliced off at a gentle angle-. It hung four 

 feet above the ground in a heavy patch of bamboo grass with its 

 open end pointing toward the earth. Several other open reeds of 

 the same character surrounded it, appearing to me very much the 

 same. Not so to the wasp, however, she differentiated at once, and 

 upon returning from her journeys, flew directly to the reed of her 

 choice. There was no uncertainty in her approach, no repeated 

 trials to find the proper entrance. A straight, single flight from the 

 outer world to her tube marked her arrival. What a contrast to the 

 clumsy one-banded dauber who wastes her precious time! 



I first found the white-footed wasp gathering a ball of soggy clay 

 in a pitfall trap in the trail leading to the forest. Several of these 

 holes had been excavated and for their intended purpose of catching 



frogs, toads and the smaller rodents they were perhaps less produc- 



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