1896.] 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



23 



Angeles Counties. These nests are built either in the crotches 

 of the terminal branches of shrubs, as shown in the illustration, 

 or in depressions or angles of stones or boulders lying on the 

 ground. The nests vary in size according to the number of cells; 

 if containing six or seven they may be as large as a walnut; if 



Fig. I. Fig. 2. 



I. — Mass of cells of .-). consitaile Ashni. 



2. — A. consimile Ashm. on twig. 



3.— Cell showing cocoon in situ, with nipple-like projection 



Fig. 3. 



only one, little more than a quarter of an inch long; but all are 

 of the same composition, whether plastered in a crevice of a rock 

 or cunningly perched on a twig. The main mass in which the 

 cells are somewhat irregularly arranged is composed of a tough 

 glue-like substance very copiously intermixed with comparatively 

 large grains of sand. 



Each cell when completed is covered over with these sand 

 grains closely cemented over its surface, and the next cells placed 

 alongside and similarly treated until the whole mass which is ulti- 

 mately neatly rounded off, looks like a fragment of sandstone, 

 or a miniature conglomerate through which the twig had pushed 

 its way. The outside, by exposure becomes almost as brittle as 

 the rock itself but internally the mass is always soft, though quite 

 tenacious. The grains and stony fragments utilized to build and 



