120 
moist earth, and finishes this off with a mixture formed of the 
excreta of geckos (lizards), giving the plug a whitish or plaster- 
like appearance. D’Herculais (1882) has also noticed this curious 
habit in the case of C. chalybeus at Port Natal (Africa), the 
material there used being bird excrement. 
One cell of C. violaceum formed in the base of a penholder 
contained 13 spiders, representing 7 or more species; upon 
the abdomen of one was a wasp egg. The cocoon is dark, thin 
and torpedo-shaped. The insect has a long quiescent period in 
its cocoon, for while the adults were abundant about houses in 
early spring, a little later they were mostly in the cocoon stage, 
remaining thus for some months. 



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Fig. 57. Completed nest of Sceli- Fig. 58. Two-cell nest of S. intru- 
phron intrudens secured on un- dens; unfinished. Redueed. 
derside of palm leaf. Reduced. 
Cocoon of same; shghtly en- 
larged. 
Sceliphron imtrudens (Smith), var. 
Length 27 mm.; black; wings and legs (in part) orange yellow. 
This is one of the largest and handsomest of the Sceliphronini, 
and while not so common as its smaller Philippine cousins, is, 
nevertheless, a familiar insect, as it bites out mouthfuls of mud 
in moist places along the lower forest trails. Although she will 
fasten her heavy, ball-like nest far up on the rafters of Nipa 
houses, she appears more at home out of doors, nesting under 
the shelter of the fan leaves of the “Buri” palm (Corypha elata 
Roxb.) (Fig. 57), or else high up on a forest vine, fully exposed 
