98 
nest. She is occasionally seen within the forest, but I have 
found her more at home along the wooded banks of a stream at 
the College of Agriculture. The two or three-celled nest (Figs. 
45,47) is placed in rather exposed situations. It is pasted on tree 
trunks or twigs, but as the structure seems proof against wind 
and weather, being varnished over with a tree gum, it remains in 
position long after the brood or parasite has emerged. 
The energetic architect is 
rather shy and a swift work- 
er. Several females were ob- 
served gathering, at the base 
of tree trunks,-the main 
building material of the nest, 
earth - like substance that 
forms the coverways for the 
termites or white ants. The 
wasps first sip up water from 
some convenient hollow or 
edge of stream, and the ball 
of earth subsequently gath- 
ered is worked around in her 
mouth until it assumes the 
right consistency, when it is 
plastered on the building site 
with the dorsal tip of the 
abdomen, (Fig. 45) The 
first cel lis secuhed to the 
bark; ete., along its side, the 
Fig. 45. Pseudagenia nyemitawa putting OPC end upwards; it is 
the finishing touches to a two-cell nest stored as soon as possible 
which is fastened to a tree trunk. The with a spider, which, how- 
wasp is revolving a semi-hquid ball of 
gum in her mouth, and is smearing a ©V€T; may not be captured 
bit from this gum on the top of the soon. I happened to see a 
nest with the dorsal tip of her abdo- spider stung by the wasp, its 
masa ans legs snipped off in a minute 
or less, then it was grabbed by the anterior part of the body, 
dorsum up, and rapidly dragged beneath the wasp, over boulders 
and thence to a small tree, the couple disappearing in the crown 
of the latter. The egg is soon laid on the base of the spider’s 
abdomen beneath, the cell plugged up and another added along- 
side. the first. Before the cell group of two or. three cells 
is completed, a partial coating of varnish may be put on. The 
cells finished, are more closely united with mud and the ineri- 
table ‘‘footrest,’ a small ledge or projection to the upper and 


























