152 

Fig. 81. Odynerus vespoides, 9, type, X 5. 
Eumenes curvata Saussure. 
Length 29 mm.; polished black; wings iridescent purple, 
petiole long. 
This is a fine glossy black wasp (Fig. 82), her slender length 
being over an inch, her black wings showing a purple glitter. 
She and her stouter orange-winged cousin may dwell in the forest 
or nest in your house. 
The first nest a # curvata which I observed was very con- 
veniently situated, 1 horizontally affixed at a height of about 
4 feet to the cae Sie of a couple of insulz ited and inter- 
twined electric light wires in my room. The builder was 
tame enough, and when disturbed would poise in air and regard 
you from a distance. She began her nest on the after- 
noon of November 1, 1916, and deserted it as a 7-celled affair, 
molested by ants, on November 17. Although she had plenty of 
time on her first day of work to complete a cell, she plastered but 
three lumps of mud on the wire and called it quits, said cell being 
finished at 1:45 of the following afternoon. This cell had the 
following dimensions: Width, 22 mm.; height, 15.5 mm.; length, 
15 mm. The jug-shaped aperture pointing skywards was only 
3 mm. across the mouth. Owing to the large size of the wasp 
and to her condescending disposition, nest-building could be 
watched at close range. The vase-shaped cells are each built in 
peripheral layers ; the “object of attachment when sufficiently broad 
constitutes the direct base of the cell itself; also, the side part of 
another cell may form a portion of a neighboring cell. The archi- 
