83 
handily beneath them, while those that are not leg cutters almost 
always adopt the clumsy method of dragging the spider as they 
run backwards. No Pompilidae, so far as I know, stores more 
than one spider in a cell, each victim being of sufficient size to 
feed the wasp grub to maturity. 
The sting inflicted by these spider wasps is said to be burning 
and painful, and in this they differ from many of the other soli- 
tary wasps. : 
Macromeris violacea Lepeletier. 
Length of body, female, about 
one inch (25 mm.) ; body 
black ; wings proportionate- 
ly large, iridescent violet 
black ; legs long. 






Macromeris is alike a deni- 
zen of the dark Makiling for- 
est and of the more cultivated 
areas about the base of the 
mountain. Conspicuous for 
her size and dusky coloration, 
she is occasionally seen mak- 
ing short flights in the woods, 
banana groves or about 
; palms, and searching the hol- 
f lows of trees, trunks or other 
places likely to harbor HHeter- 
opoda venatoria Linn., a large 
and decidedly active spider, a 
well-known creature of the 
tropics and a frequent resi- 
dent of the houses there. This 
Fig. 37. Portion of a tree hollow spider forms the food of the 
showing a Macromeris violacea Vacromeris grub. At other 
guarding her cells, X 1/2. : Sere : : 
times the wasp is occupied in 
building her cells, selecting the material from tree trunks or the 
COV eel runways of termites or white ants. She 1s not a common 
insect, and if you are able to follow one to her nest, placed 
well within the hollow of a tree or in a partly open bamboo 
stem, you will likely find one or more alert and aggressive fe- 
males perched in the semi-gloom, about a group of large oblique 
cells, (Hig: 37). Perhaps a male will be present also. He 

















































