SOME FACTS ABOUT WASPS AND BEES. 317 



various points in the Atlantic coast States. Last spring there 

 was a large colony of these established beneath the sweeping 

 limbs of a fir tree near the main entrance to the Smithsonian 

 Institution. The ground in this locality was riddled with their 

 burrows. A great many cases of the sting of this formidable 

 wasp are known to me. Years ago I knew of a case where a pas- 

 senger upon a Mississippi River boat was stung by one of them 

 on the back of the neck, and the man died eventually from 

 the effect of it. The insect was knocked down on the deck at 

 the time, and was found to be bearing a large cicada in its 

 mandibles. 



Some of the smaller fossorial wasps appear like large ants, the 

 females being without wings. They also have a sting, and are 

 clothed with a fine hairy coat, often of a bright yellow or brilliant 

 vermilion. In New Mexico, in sandy places, I frequently saw 

 these insects, but never more than one at a time, and only a few 

 in the course of a day. They have been called " solitary ants " 

 (Mutilla ?). There are hundreds of species in the world of these 

 fossorial wasps, some winged, others wingless ; some very small, 

 others measure three or four inches across the wings (Pepsis, 

 etc.) ; while many of them exhibit the most wonderful coloring in 

 metallic blues, greens, reds, and yellow. Nearly all have the 

 habit of paralyzing other insects by stinging them, then carrying 

 their helpless victims to their subterranean nests, where they are 

 buried alive by the side of their eggs, so that when the larvse are 

 hatched out they find a fresh repast awaiting them in the form of 

 these living but paralyzed spiders, caterpillars, etc. The " mud 

 daubers " have the same habits, and we all know them, and how 

 they, with pellets of mud, build their curious cells against walls 

 and fences and in all sorts of places about our country houses. 

 These are great species to paralyze spiders and place them in these 

 mud cells and sealing them up afterward for the future use of 

 their young (Pelopczus). When collecting in New Orleans I fre- 

 quently did a good day's work in spider collecting by cracking open 

 these mud nests. Packard also refers to those sand and mud wasps 

 that dig deep holes in our gravel walks and have the instinct to 

 sting grasshoppers in one of the thoracic ganglia, thus paralyzing 

 the victim, in which the wasp lays her eggs ; and the young, hatch- 

 ing, feed upon the living but paralyzed grasshoppers, the store of 

 living food not being exhausted until the larval wasp is ready to 

 stop eating and finish its transformations (Sphex ichneumoned). 



In a paragraph above I have referred to the family Vespidce, 

 of the group Diploptera* and it includes some of the most inter- 



* From the Greek diplos, doubled, and ptera, wings, referring to the fact that the rep- 

 resentatives of this family, when in a state of repose, fold their fore wings longitudinally. 



