146 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [May, '2O 



culatus Waterhouse), one wonders how the wasp manages to remain so 

 plentiful. Mr. O. H. Swezey has found it in the immature stages on 

 Anomala grubs in the field, an6 we have found it in one or two cases on 

 Adoretiis grubs in a cane field. On Oahu we have caught for distribution 

 many thousands of females" (p. 59).* 



Approximately 182 species of Aculeate wasps (including a few Bethyl- 

 idae), belonging to 18 families, are stated to have been collected in the 

 Philippines; 52 are treated biologically in this paper by Dr. Williams, 

 who describes 13 new species, while Mr. Rohwer describes 16; the new 

 forms are Sphecidae, Psammocharidae (Pompilidae), Vespidae and Thyn- 

 nidae. A general introduction to the life history and ecological relations 

 of wasps is given by Dr. Williams (pp. 19-31), in which he also describes 

 the locality, Los Baiios, Luzon, as ideally situated for the study of insect 

 life. The Philippine College of Agriculture is here and lies immediately 

 at the base of Mt. Makiling, a well forested, ancient volcano, nearly 4000 

 feet high, with thermal springs flowing from its sides, and offering "at 

 once a study of the lowland and generally more widespread fauna of the 

 cultivated and semi-cultivated areas as well as that of the forest itself. " 

 Those who have had the opportunity of studying tropical insect life will 

 congratulate Dr. Williams on the good fortune, which he recognizes, in 

 being able to spend more than a year at such a place, "to make a resident 

 study of many wasp activities and thus observe them from day to day or 

 week to week" and to publish his interesting results. Except to a slight 

 degree, he has not recorded experiments to determine the behavior of the 

 insects under varied conditions — a single year would hardly suffice for this. 



As is always to be expected the number of details concerning the life 

 history and habits of the wasps studied which he has been able to record 

 varies greatly from species to species. The fullest data are to be found 

 in his accounts of the Methocas which lay their eggs on tiger-beetle lar- 

 vae (pp. 69-79); Macromeris, Paragenia and Pseudagenia which pro- 

 vision their nests with spiders (83-103); the Ampulicid Dolichurus which 

 gathers roaches (111-117); Ammobia and her locustid prey (128-131); 

 the Larridae and crickets (132-139); the Eumenid, Zethus cyanopterus, 

 which brings caterpillars to her offspring living in an elaborate nest of 

 leaf-pulp (157-163). Among the Vespinae a description is given of the 

 fragile, pendent nests of Stenogaster, that of 5. depressigaster being of 

 about the dimensions of an ordinary lead pencil, "made up of cells placed 

 in irregular tiers, each consisting of four or five cells, arranged in more 

 or less spiral fashion, the lowest and terminal open passageways or cells 

 now being the only objects of the wasp's solicitude" (168). The nests of 

 this species occur in the forest; " in one or two instances, so close were 

 these frail non-waterproof nests to a waterfall, that the spray frequently 

 struck them and forced the proprietors to edge around to the lee side o, 

 their dwellings, to which they habitually cling and where no doubt the 

 rest at night; and after a heavy downpour the swollen stream so aug 



Cf. F. Muir, Ann. Ent. Soc. Amer. xii, 171, June, 1919. 



