MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 821 



mud is brought between the jaws, the perimeter of the cell is laid out, the 

 substratum forming the flat side. The pellet is first kneaded by the jaws 

 into the rough shape of the wall ; then, the head being inside and the fore- 

 legs outside, the wall is squeezed between the two, and thinned. A cell takes 

 half-an-hour to build, about 8 pellets being used. When the hole is of the 

 size of her head, she catches hold of the edge with her jaws, and twists her- 

 self round and round, thereby giving a pouting border to the mouth of the 

 cell, somewhat like that of a gurrah. She then stands over the cell and puts 

 her abdomen through the opening to lay. Her head and abdomen are of the 

 same size across ; as her head was inside the opening when she finished it 

 oft:, her abdomen just goes in. She spins a gossamer thread from behind, 

 attaching one end to the upperside of the cell, lays one egg, and hangs it to 

 the other end of the thread. The egg-laying takes less than 2 minutes. She 

 then goes out for catevpillars. About a quarter of an hour is taken to bring 

 a caterpillar ; and each cell is stored with about half a dozen. I saw the 

 way the caterpillars are dealt with. They were feeding on Acacia trees, and 

 mimicked dead twigs by their colour and attitude. But the wasp spotted 

 them at once. They knew their foe ; as soon as they heard the buzz of a 

 wasp, they stopped feeding and stood stock still. She seized a caterpillar by 

 the scruff of the neck with her jaws, and held the body by her legs ; she then 

 brought her abdomen forwards between her legs, and stung the head and 

 thoracic segments through the neck, this made the caterpillar wriggle ; it 

 was then stung amidships to numb the prologs, and a third sting was given 

 near the hind end to numb the hindmost prologs, which held on to the last 

 like suckers. The caterpillar now let go and became quiet; she hugged it 

 below her breast, her jaws holding the neck and her legs the body; and 

 then flew to her nest. There is a special mechanism for stinging. The long 

 petiole or waist has a jomt fore and aft ; there is a lengthward groove behind 

 the chest ; the petiole is raised and fits into the groove ; the abdomen 

 is then bent under the petiole and afterwards thrust forwards between 

 the legs close to the breast, if the petiole were not first lifted high, the 

 abdomen could not be bent down, because the caterpillar would be in the 

 way ; and if the abdomen could not be bent down, the sting could not be 

 brought forwards to the head of the caterpillar, which is under the head 



of the wasp. 



Having reached the cell, she stuffs the caterpillar in, putting the head first 

 in, then thrusting the body in, working the while with her jaws and fore- 

 legs. She presses down the caterpillars with such force, that they indent 

 the soft wall of the cell. Each caterpillar was slightly curled, as they were 

 longer than the cell. The caterpillars were scotched, but not killed. When 

 the cell was | full, with the egg lying on the topmost caterpillars, she 

 plugged the hole with a wad of mud, and at once set to building another. 

 A cell was built and stored in two hours, about 5 being built in a day. A 

 .nest is made up of from one dozen to -two dozen cells. The nest is finished 



