84 
is a stouter-legged creature that makes a show at being fero- 
cious—a mere bluff on his part, retreating as he does before your 
advances. Madam Macromeris, on the other hand, has much at 
stake and is far more in earnest, especially if she be the foundress 
of the little colony, when she is often bold and fearless. She 
will elevate her wings in an angry buzz and frequently refuses to 
be routed. This wasp is particularly warlike when she has just 
brought in a spider; indeed, I was once compelled to imprison 
an enraged Macromeris, an unusual necessity with solitary wasps, 
in order to examine her nest. 
Like her smaller and more amiable cousin, Paragenia argenti- 
frons, next treated, these black ogresses may live in small groups 
or communities in fair harmony for months at a time. But | 
have found their nesting sites usually less accessible to vision 
than those of Paragenia, and necessitating an awkward pose on 
the part of the observer, preclude’ as close a-istudy; The cell 
material seems to be very largely composed of the earth-like 
substance employed by white ants in making their long cover- 
ways along tree trunks. Bark is also used and doubtless water 1s 
added to the material. Maindron (1878), in describing the cells 
of M. splendida, which he found at Ternate and Gilolo ( Moluc- 
cas), mentions as cell materials, vegetable debris, the bark of 
trees, and a sort of gummy cement which is insoluble in water. 
Dutt (1912) in his “Life Histories of Indian Insects,” speaks of 
clay, sand, chewed-up vegetable matter, gummy substances, etc., 
as used by M. violacea. 
We are accustomed to see the spider-wasps or Pompildae 
running along the ground in search of their victims, but Macro- 
meris seems to keep off mother earth as much as possible, and 
this is quite a natural procedure if we consider the more or 
less arboreal habits of the big spider which she seeks. Likewise, 
some of the Pseudagenia, smaller but related architects, prefer a 
tree “life: 
On November 15, 1916, I first located the nest of Macromerts. 
It consisted ultimately of fifteen neat cells, a compact lot ar- 
ranged in more or less vertical rows in the darkness of a tree 
(Cordia sp.) hollow, at an elevation of two or three feet from 
the ground. The cells, their aperture upwards, were obliquely 
placed. From one to three wasps were present, astraddle the 
cells. On December 22 I detached the cells. Fourteen of these 
were completed, while one at the lower end of the inner row 
was just commenced. A cell recently vacated had the aperture 
bitten out by the emerged wasp, neatly enlarged and rimmed 
again for further use; a second cell contained a large spider 
with a wasp egg on it, a third cell contained a spider and a 
young wasp larva, a fourth cell had a nearly replete larva, while 
a fifth was vacant. The nine remaining cells were closed and 
