26 THE SOLITARY WASPS 



their tubes also for some such purpose, and have 

 continued on truly conservative lines to build 

 them long after all usefulness has passed away 

 from the habit ; anyhow they are very interesting 

 and beautiful structures. I have found the 

 tubes of one of our rarer species projecting 

 perpendicularly out of the level sand, but even 

 then the tubes were curved over at the end, so 

 that the wasp had to go up and down again 

 before entering its actual hole. The Rev. F. D. 

 Morice in 1906 found the tubes of the same 

 species in numbers projecting from the walls 

 of an old stuccoed cottage situated close to the 

 locality where I found mine, so it is evident 

 that more than one situation suits its require- 

 ments. The solitary wasps provision their 

 cells with caterpillars, stinging them in the 

 same way as the f ossors do. One *very peculiar 

 genus, of one species only in this country, has 

 its body much narrowed at the waist by reason 

 of the constricted form of the basal segment ; it 

 makes a little round nest of clay which it suspends 

 from a twig of heather or other plant. This 

 species is rarely met with except on the heathery 

 commons of Surrey, Hants, Dorset, etc. The 



