Oo’ 
7 
bears some tubercles on the head and back of the thorax, and the 
abdomen is also armed, especially by lateral segmental processes. 
The sting is very conspicuous, and bent back along apical third 
of the abdomen, and from its position and extruded condition 
recalls the pupae of the non-aculeate, parasitic Hymenoptera, such 
as the Ichneumonidae and Braconidae. 
The cocoon stage may occupy from ten to twenty or more days 
for the summer cycle, or it may extend over a period of months 
for the drier season. Thus the development of Methoca from 
egg to adult may occupy less than a month. The following data 
show some Methoca life-cycles 
Egg laid, September .29, p. m.; hatched, October 1, p. m.; 
spinning, October 6, a. m.; adult, October 29; @. ras 30 days. 
Egg laid, October 1 or 2; spinning, October 9, a. m.; adult, 
October 29> 9.2 'Cycle 23 days: 
Egg laid, October 5, p. m.; hatched, October 8, a. m.; spinning, 
October 14; adult, November 11; ¢. . Cycle 37 days. 
Egg laid, October 5, p. m.; hatched, October 8, p. m.; spinning, 
October 13; adult, November 3; (7. | Cycle 29 days. 
Egg laid, October 4, p. m.; adult, November 9; ¢@. Cycle 36 
days. 
As a rule the male and female insects were not taken in the 
same localities; the former I never saw on the ground, but took 
these rather handsome wasps flying or running jerkily on the 
leaves of low weeds or bushes that either harbored honey-dew- 
producing bugs or were in the shelter of such trees or shrubs. 
The wings of the male wasp rest flat on the body and reflect a 
purplish “black iridescence. The female, which seems the rarer 
of the two, was at times similarly attracted to honey-dewed 
bushes, but was taken more often in rather bare, shaded paths 
and about leaf trash. 
Methoca punctata Williams. 
Female ; length 6 mm.; red and black. 
My notes on this somewhat larger and stouter species (Fig. 12), 
while fragmentary, are sufficient to show that it differs to some 
extent in its biology from the wasp just considered. I did not 
devote sufficient care to the rearing of this insect and so cannot go 
much beyond the egg stage. As w ith M. striatella, wasps were 1m- 
prisoned in jelly tumblers with the same species of Cicindela. 
Yet this insect, which is larger and more powerful than the pre- 
