AUSTEALIAIS" HTMENOPTEHA ACFLEATA. 323 



over with mud, ultimately giving it the appearance of an oblong 

 lump of clay stuck on the wall, for by well smearing the mud she 

 leaves nothing whatever to indicate the existence of the cells 

 hidden underneath. 



This wasp began to build on the 12th of September and finished 

 on the 28rd of the same month, during which period she had 

 completed a nest of ten cells. On the Brd of November I slightly 

 opened a cell which had been closed on the 20th of September, 

 and found a wasp struggling inside. On the 8th of November I 

 opened some other cells, and found several dead larvae and pupae 

 which had been destroyed by parasites. 



The cells are furnished with a silvery silk lining, with hardly 

 any space between the lining and the cell- wall. This lining is 

 fixed to the cell by fibres of a woolly appearance. In one 

 corner of a cell, between the lining and the cell- wall, I found 

 what appeared to be the cast-off skin of the larva, and excrements, 

 as well as the skins of the caterpillars which had been devoured. 



The wasps do not all emerge from the same side, some coming 

 out at one end of the cell and some at the opposite end. 



On the 10th of November the wings of the wasp whose cell I 

 had opened had grown to their full length, and on the 12th of 

 November I let her out. She was doubled up, her abdomen 

 being under her thorax, and she was working with her jaws, fore 

 legs, and antennae, but there seemed to be no room for her to use 

 her other legs. In the corner of the cell, inside the lining, was 

 another cast-ofi" skin. On the same day (November 12) a wasp 

 emerged from a cell closed on the 22nd of September, so that it 

 would appear that it takes fifty-one days for the development of 

 the wasp from the time the egg is laid until the wasp appears as 

 a fully formed imago. Both the wasps on emerging emitted a 

 few drops of a colourless fluid like water, and, strange to say, it 

 appeared to me that this came from the thorax. Both wasps 

 commenced to clean themselves as soon as they emerged, and 

 then pi epared to fly away, when I captured them. 



Abispa splekdida, Guey. 



I found five specimens of these, which I took out of the nest. 

 The larva and pupa develop without forming any shell. When 

 the female has finished her nest she blocks up the entrance, but 

 whether she destroys the approach or not I am unable to say. 

 Each larva has a cell to itself. 



LIN3J". .TOUKIir. ZOOLOGY, TOL. XVIII. 23 



