S6 
could not be persuaded to enter, but after some angry buzzing 
she finally disappeared seven or eight feet up, inside a hollow 
branch. This nest, rather inaccessibly placed, contained three or 
four wasps at one time. I ascertained that three were females. 
It had a long existence, as it was not abandoned until the latter 
part of July. Apparently the faithful wasps await the hatching 
of their progeny. 
Within a week of the time of abandonment of the nest above 
referred to, I located an old female Macromeris which had just 
begun to build a cell in the partly exposed node of a bamboo 
stump, said stump also containing a thriving colony of Paragenia 
spider-wasps, which occupied the node below Macromeris and is 
referred to extensivély in the next article. This was on the 
morning of July 28, and I have good reasons to believe that the 
rather dilapidated Macromeris had been the proprietress of some 
of the recently-abandoned cells in the Cordia tree, perhaps a third 
of a mile away. The bamboo stump was excellently situated for 
obser\ ation and the old and sagacious architect almost immune 
to fear. By the afternoon of July 29, she had made little prog- 
ress, the cell being less than one-third complete. But since the 
interior of the bamboo was smooth, Macromeris could only wath 
difficulty secure a sufficiently firm foothold to plaster away; ac- 
cordingly, I scratched up and dented the wall about her ceil, and 
this assisted her v rastly. Like Paragenia and Pseudagenia, our 
black giantess chews up and revolves her building material in her 
mouth, and smears it on the cell with the dorsal tip of her abdo- 
men. By the afternoon of August 1 the cell was complete. It 
was placed with its long axis vertical, and was furnished with a 
short nipple at the lower end. It was a well-made affair of a 
rather springy nature. Its base was the bamboo wall. 
At 3 p.m., August 2, Macromeris had nearly closed up her 
cell, within which could be seen a portly spider. Whereas we 
are accustomed to note a cat’s change of nature after she has 
acquired the responsibility of a family, so also is this change 
evident in our big black wasp. Heretofore fearless and impa- 
tient, she is doubly so now that she has captured her spider, 
stored it and placed a precious egg thereon. I would not hesi- 
tate to call her vicious as she buzzed angrily at my curiosity. By 
5:00 p. m. the cell was capped, the wasp putting on the finishing 
touches. Unlike Paragenia, she fetched her material—after the 
spider was stored—from without the nest. During one of these 
trips to the field a Diacamma, a ponerid, one of the largest Phil- 
ippine ants, came upon the cell and began biting into its. still 
moist cover, but the ant was angrily nipped and put to flight by 
the irate Macromeris returning with cell material. The wasp, 
