169 
days, tearing apart the cells, punching holes into others, and mak- 
ing great hav oc with the contents. Nevertheless, the little build- 
ers were very persevering and at least three times repaired their 
ruined domicile. Some “of my other study 
similar fate. 
suffered a 
As in other social wasps, the egg (Fig. 98) is glued to the bot- 
tom of the cell. It is about 1.5 mm. long and very firmly secured 
along its curved middle to the cell, and upon its incurved outer 
surface the wasp deposits a sticky, 
rather transparent ball of jelly-like 
food. The young larva, hatching 
from the stout egg, the shell of 
which retains much of its shape, 
curls and partly imbeds itself in thts 
food, which it proceeds to devour, 
(Fig. 98, lower). Gaining in size, 
it curls itself at the bottom of the 
cell; its body contour, together with 
a few of its fine hairs, now keep 1 
from tumbling out (Fig. 99), while 
the underside of ae body (the side 
towards the cell base), more tightly 
curled than the outer, forms a sort 
of funnel into which the wasp now 
places }the viscid. lump of jelly. 
When pupation time arrives, the grub 
merely smears a thin film on the 
walls of its abode and pupates head 
downwards in this inverted cup, 
whose open end, being a little eccen- 
tric and slightly narrower than the 
main bore of the cell, prevents the 
curious, humped, triangularly - bent 
pupa from falling out. The pupa 
(Fig. 100) is so bent upon itself that 
the mandibles touch the end of the 
body ; and it is the head and upper 

Fig. 97. Nest 
of S. depres- 
sigaster show- 
ing arrange- 
ment of cells 
and passage- 
ways. The 
numbers indi- 
eate the eells, 
and the tops 
of the pass- 
age-ways are 
shown in two 
planes by se- 
ries of paral- 
lel lines. The 
passage - way 
between cells 
Ti andealtoears 
in a_ plane 
parallel to the 
line of  vi- 
sion; the wall 
above, as well 
as the round- 
ed top —por- 
tion of the 
passage,which 
is extended 
below, is 
shown to the 
left in broad- 
side view 
ar 
thorax side of the triangle which forms a base a little wider than 
the cell’s mouth. Thus it lies in an upside-down position. The 
exuvium, in some cases at least, remains in the cell. Measured 
from its longest side, i. e., from the surface of the mesonotum to 
the angle formed by the pedicel and the rest of the abdomen, the 
pupa is 9 mm. long. There is a pair of prong-like affairs on the 
mesonotum and a ‘low median spine on the metanotum; the head 
