362 Trans. Acad, Sci. of St. Louis 
CHAPTER III. 
Tue Grass-Carrier Wasp, Chlorion (Isodontia) 
auripes Fern. 
The behavior of this very interesting creature was 
incompletely told in ‘‘Wasp Studies Afield,’’ pp. 203- 
206, and Trans. Acad. Sci. 25; 199-201, 1926. Since that 
time I have been able to add, piecemeal, several details 
of its life history. In 1917 we occasionally encountered 
the striking spectacle of a wasp flying high with a long 
blade of grass or strand of excelsior in its jaws. We 
finally traced these wasps to carpenter-bee burrows in 
wooden beams, where they were carrying in this mate- 
rial, and so ended our information on the habits of the 
species. ‘‘Thus the season ended without our having 
ascertained whether they used this material for bedding, 
for food, or as a plug to close the orifice.’’ With our 
curiosity thus aroused, we were ever on the watch for 
their burrows in the wood. 
We have previously quoted Packard, who tells how 
these wasps use analagous material for plugging their 
nests. More recently we were pleasantly surprised to 
find a note by F. X. Williams* which has some bearing 
on the phylogeny of this habit. He records that a slen- 
der wasp from Philippine Islands (species not recorded) 
“‘of the Zsodontia group, provided with slim mandibles 
and legs unfitted for digging, was observed gathering 
tomentum or wool-like material from the under side of 
a green leaf, and she evidently makes use of some pre- 
existing hollow as a nesting place, dividing the cells 
therein with the material gathered.’’ 
My first interesting discovery was a pine board in 
horizontal position, above a doorway in an abandoned 
*Philippine Wasp Studies, p. 119, 1919. 
