824 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV 



whiaks round and squirts a drop of white watery secretion from her anus 

 into the pit ; this softens the clay ; she broadens the pit with her jaws until 

 her ovipositor can get in ; she deepens the pit by swaying her abdomen from 

 side to side, the while dropping in some of the watery stuff. When the pit 

 becomes too narrow for the abdomen the sides of the pit are bitten off. In 

 digging, the diameter of the pit is increased by means of the jaws, and the 

 depth through the teeth on the last segment of the abdomen. When the 

 hollow of the cell is reached, very likely the web lining is pierced by the 

 sting and the tubular ovipositor put through the hole, so as to reach the pupa 

 on which the egg is laid. The Eumenes drove ofE the Cuckoo, and plugged 

 the hole it had made. The grub of Stilbum ni^ps the ipu^a of Eumenes and 

 sucks it without giving rise to any wound. The pupa of the host remains 

 soft and moist, and is crumpled up into a round heap in one corner, the 

 abdomen being telescoped into the chest. The softness is due to the fact that 

 the web lining makes the cell proof to evaporation. Prom the telescoping of 

 the pupa the Cuckoo grub seems to nip the apex and to thrust it headward 

 as it gets empty. The crumpled pupa can be easily pulled straight again. 



The grub of the Stilbum is white and ringed. There is no distinct head ; 

 but it has three soft segments at the fore end ; the first is peristomial 

 and bears the mouth and two black eye specks ; then come two soft indistinct 

 segments which can be telescoped into the prothoracic segment. The protho- 

 racic segment is tough, narrow, stops at the sides and does not bear any pim- 

 ple. Behind it come seven tough, alabaster- white, bigger rings ; they go right 

 round, and each bears a fleshy pimple (papilla) on each side underneath, 

 which may be breathing openings (stigmata). The tail end is soft, and is made 

 up of three distinct and one indistinct segments, it becomes the ovipositor. 

 The pupa is enclosed in a brown cocoon, which is silky outside; but smooth, 

 shiny and chocolate-coloured inside. It has two biggish black eyes ; four 

 visible abdominal horny segments ; it is at first alabaster-white and is pitted ; 

 later on it becomes green.: 



Each Eumenes nest harboured one Stilbum young. 



In captivity the watery white secretion was seen to drop from the hind 

 end ; it came from the vent j I could not tell what the use of the ten pits on 

 the last segment were for. 



I also saw a species of Chrysis, of the same colours as Stilbum, but smaller 

 and with the hind body more slender and more conical. The sub-marginal 

 cell was quite open at one point, I did not see any bore through the nest of 

 Eumenes. 



Odynerm pu7tctum makes USQ of the empty cells of Eumenes dimidiatipennit 

 for its young. It cleans the cell, clearing away the frass and rubbish. It 

 stores the common fly and jumping spiders {Salticus) for its young, and cloaoa 

 the celL 



EUG. CRETIN, Lt.-Col., F.R.C.S., I.M.S. 



Dera Ismail Khan, 

 November, 1902. 



