iwrrcES OF various insects. 



Eumenes fraternus Say. 



The Fraternal Potter-Wasp. 



(Ord. Hymenopteka: Fam. Eumenid^.) 



Eumenes fraterna Say : in Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of 

 St. Peter's Eiver, under the command of Major Stephen H. Long, 

 ii., 1824, p. 344-346. 



Examples of the cells of this insect, attached to a grapevine leaf, 

 were sent from Sandy Hill, N. T. 



They are balls of clay of a somewhat irregular surface, of about 

 the size of a common black cherry (six-tenths of an inch in diameter). 

 Examination shows them to have been moulded from separate pellets 

 of clay, of which a dozen or more are recognizable. From some of the 

 additions little nodosities have been left projecting here and there. 



One of the balls having been broken en route, its character is shown 

 in a thin wall of a smooth, glassy interior surface, as if from the secre- 

 tion of some glairy substance. The cavity contained no larval 

 remains, but wa^ nearly filled with a yellow, wasp-like pupa, having a 

 large abdomen, constricted somewhat centrally, and much more so at 

 its junction with the thorax. 



Description. 

 On rearing the pupa it gave the fraternal potter-wasp, Eumenes 

 fraternus, shown in the accompanying figure. It is of about the size 

 of the common wasp, Polistes fus- 

 catus Fabr. It may be recognized 

 by its shining black color, the 

 long petiolated basal joint of the 

 body of about the length of the 

 thorax, extended from its hair- 

 like pedicel in the form of a long- 

 necked bottle; the following joint 

 (second) broadly pear-shaped, 

 with a yellow spot on each side 

 and a yellow border behind; third fkateenus, and its cell. 

 and fourth joints bordered with white; legs black and yellow; wings 

 smoky. 



Fk;. 1.— The fraternal potter-wasp, Eumenes 



