70 
Methoca striatella Williams. 
Female, length 5 mm.; black. 
I found the female Methoca (Fig. 6) at the College of Agricul- 
ture from August to November. She was not plentiful enough to 
be studied in her natural home, and so, like other observers, I had 
recourse to glass receptacles. Here I met with considerable 
success. A jelly tumbler two-thirds filled with well-packed soil 










got rs 
VB CG gla 50 2S 
aoe SYR} 3 
Oe ey 
Le eter BE: 

Fig. 32. Methoca striatella awaiting her opportu- 
nity to sting the tiger-beetle larva, XK 10/3. 
into which and next the glass several holes, each to accommo- 
date a Cicindela larva, had been made, furnished the scene of 
operations. Provided I had sufficient patience, I encountered no 
difficulty in obtaining beetle larvae. These dwell in more or less 
well-defined colonies, each insect occupying a neat, nearly or 
quite vertical burrow in the soil. The tunnels have no debris nor 
heap of soil about their mouth, which when stoppered by the ant- 
mated but ground-colored lid, the head and first portion of the 
thorax of the larva, form a deadly trap for the unwary insect 
which walks within reach of the curved mandibles. Being pro- 
vided with a pair of forward-pointing hooks arising from a 
hump on the upper side of the abdomen, the larva by anchoring 
