42 Timchri. 



The forest species Chartergus charto/rms Oliv. builds a nest of much 

 the same design, but here the covering for the cells is of a card board -like 

 substance and not easily broken. Owing to this fact these nests are 

 often seen preserved as curies in this colony. 



Not so highly developed, though still high in the scale, are the 

 wasps that build the saucepan-cover nests. Here a number of cells are 

 joined together and attached to their support by a small pedicel, these 

 builders, however, make no covering wall. Our commonest examples of 

 this type are the homes of the Brown Marabunta, Polistes canadensis L. 

 var. amazonicus Schulz, which can almost alwa3 - s be seen about railway 

 stations or under bridges and houses in the country. 



Familiar objects to everyone must be the little mud homes of the 

 ' mason bees ' Eumenes canalicutata Oliv. Those little earthen flasks 

 about J of an inch in diameter which we tind so often attached to the 

 electric-light wire, on pictures, the ceiling or other such places, are the 

 homes of this insect. In these little domes the eggs are laid and a num- 

 ber of caterpillars, paralysed by a sting from the parent wasp, are placed 

 therein so that when the young larvae hatch there is an ample food 

 supply for them. Sealed within these cells the larvae undergo their 

 changes and eventually emerge as adult wasps. 



Very like the above in their habits are the wasps Sceliphron 

 jistidare Dahlb. only in this case the parents store up spiders. The 

 architecture of their homes too is different, for they build cells about 1^ 

 inches long, parallel to each other and usually against a wall, th ugh 

 sometimes nests are found on a pendant object iu which case the support 

 is encircled. When each cell has been provisioned the wasp closes the 

 entrance and finally smears the whole surface over so that the arrange- 

 ment of the cells is imperceptible. Development proceeds within the 

 cells and eventually adult wasps emerge by biting holes through the 

 structure. 



Absolutely different in their habits are the burrowing wasps, and for 

 our example we will take the common 'cow-fly tigers,' Monedula 

 Signata. L. Not only the appearance, but to a large extent the 

 habits of these insects are described by the name ' cowily tigers,' 

 given them by the Creoles. In colour they are a light green being vari- 

 ously marked with bars and blotches of black, very much after the man- 

 ner of a jaguar, and their food is largely composed of ' cow Hies 

 (Tabanidae). These insects build their homes by burrowing into the 

 ground, showing a preference for sandy soils. Along with this habit of 

 digging there has developed a number of spines on the forelegs of these 

 insects which must greatly help them in their digging operations. In 

 the burrow which the female makes she lays an egg and the larva which 

 hatches from this is supplied with flies previously paralysed by its 

 parents. When fully grown a cocoon is spun and eventually an adult 

 ' cowfly tiger ' emerges. 



