822 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV. 



oflE by filling in all the hollows, and laying on a layer of mud, until the nest 

 looks like a half-orange. Streaks of mud ran out from the edges of the nest, 

 as if a daub of mud had been chucked against the wall. One wasp took 6 

 days to build a nest of 12 cells, 3 days being spent over the cells, 3 days 

 over the finishing off. Another wasp took 10 days to build her nest of 20 

 cells, 5 days being spent over the cells, and 5 days over the finishing off. In 

 3 instances, after having closed the first cell, the wasps left the spot, and 

 built somewhere else. They buzz whilst on the wing, but make no noise 

 when working. They worked from sunrise to sunset. At night they slept by 

 hanging on to twigs or twine catching hold of it by means of the jaws 

 and clutching it with the forelegs. The eggs are big, and after laying one or 

 two dozen eggs, the abdomen became thin, the wasp was weak and would 

 sometimes fall down whilst flying. She came back now and then to look at 

 her nest. If she found any hole she would plug it. After the young had 

 come out some of the holes were stopped. On one occasion a mother wasp 

 plugged a hole that her young was making to' come out ; the young wasp had 

 to drill anew. The caterpillars were those of a small grey moth. July had 

 witnessed a new birth of nature, the Acacia trees were in leaf, the caterpillars 

 had hatched underground. They made tracks for the Acacia trees, creeping 

 rather fast, a loop occurring between the thoracic legs and abdominal prolegs. 

 Each was 1^ inch long, over one line thick ; eyes olive-coloured ; neck olive, 

 above, black sideways; back black, with 3 olive patches ; 5 olive dots and one 

 olive stripe on each side ; tail olive, belly greenish below, with 7 black dots ; 

 3 pairs of thoracic legs ; 2 pairs of biggish, 2 pairs of dwarfed abdominal 

 prolegs ; aft one pair of sucker-like tail-prolegs. 



The egg is ^ cm. long, 1 mm. thick, sausage-shaped, big, tough, white and 

 clear. It hangs by a thread and lies on the top layer of caterpillars. The 

 grub hatches on the 2nd day, and has a light greenish tint. It remains inside 

 the egg shell. It is a headless, legless maggot, and sucks the top layer of 

 caterpillars from its coign of vantage. The egg skin then splits screw-wise and 

 lengthens, allowing the maggot to feed on the middle layer of caterpillars 

 from its swing. When half grown it gets down amongst the lowest cater- 

 pillars and sucks them dry. When full grown it is about J inch long, fat, 

 cream coloured, 12-ringed. At first the gut ends blindly. But when the 

 maggot is full-fed, the gut opens at the anus, and it gets rid of its frass. It 

 then spins a web with which it lines its cell, shutting off the frass and the 

 dried caterpillars in one corner. The pupa is about the same size as the 

 wasp ; it is at first white, but afterwards becomes brown. It is naked, being 

 merely wrapped in a thin caul ; the wings, legs and antennae being in sheaths 

 of their own. It takes about weeks from egg to imago. Each imago cuts 

 its way out. It moistens the hard clay with its saliva and rasps away with 

 itsistrong jaws. One can hear the rasping when standing near. 



There are two broods in the year. The females of the year before, which 

 have wintered during the cold and dry weathers, begin nesting at the begin- 



