Vol. xxiii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 251 
does not cast them about indiscriminately for it was observed 
that W dropped them at a distance of from four to six feet 
east of its nest, while E, disposed of hers to a distance of about 
three feet in a direction W. N. W. from its burrow. 
A note made at 10.30 A. M. reads: “W took out three 
pellets of moist earth in succession, dropped them and then 
flew away east for water. The tube she was building was over 
one-half an inch high and taller than that of E, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that E had commenced building about half an hour 
earlier than W.” ‘The pellets which are used for tube build- 
ing are moistened yet more when brought up to the surface. 
As the tunnels neared completion the wasps appeared to 
work less systematically and regularly and stayed away longer. 
At 10.52 A. M., W seemed to have finished its tube. 
On August 22 and 23 the wasps were occasionally watched. 
At that date, however, their tubes were finished and aside 
from noting that they took occasional trips (we saw one of the 
two make seven trips in thirty minutes, and bask in the sun), 
nothing of interest was observed. However, some of the ac- 
tions of Odynerus must have escaped our notice, for at 8.35 
A. M. of the following day (August 24), each wasp was seen 
to bring in a larva of the Pyralid Lovostege sticticalis, which 
must have been nearly mature, but nevertheless was easily car- 
ried in air by the hymenopteron. These larvae were exceed- 
ingly common on Russian thistle. A few hundred yards away 
from our camp we noted an army of these worms composed of 
thousands of individuals, marching in a northerly direction. 
At 9.30 A. M. of the same day (August 24) we caught and 
killed E and dug out her nest. The tube over the hole was 9-16 
inch high, nearly ™% inch diameter inside measurement, and 
had an uneven rim (see Pl. XIV, fig. 6). The tunnel was verti- 
cal for 1% inches and from that depth curved in a westernly di- 
rection for 134 inches. The terminal cell, which was slightly 
greater in diameter than the gallery and horizontal, was not 
yet closed, but contained two sticticalis larvae, paralyzed so as 
to be almost incapable of motion. Evidently Odynerus had but 
begun provisioning its nest. It did not, however, delay laying 
