Burier.—Insect Architecture. 945 
furnish living food for the future grub. Caterpilars, after being stung 
by the Caterpillar-wasp ( Ammophila)), wil transform into  chrysalids, 
though too weak to change into moths. A writer in South Africa, Mr. 
Gueinzins, observes that “large spiders and caterpillars become imme- 
diately motionless on being stung; and I cannot help thinking that the 
poisonous acid of Hymenoptera has an antiseptie and preserving property ; 
for caterpillars and locusts retain their colours weeks after being stung, 
and this, too, in a moist situation under a burning sun." So potent is this 
animal poison, that it enables another member of the same group, Pom- 
pilus formosus, which inhabits Texas, to paralyze with a single sting that 
immense Tarantula, the Myyale hentzii, known as the Bird-killer. Having 
inserted its egg in the body of this huge spider, it proceeds to bury it in a 
nest dug out of the ground to the depth of five or six inches. There is a 
tropical species belonging to the genus Ampulex, which inhabits Zanzibar, 
and oviposits in the body of the cockroach; and the dead bodies of the 
cockroaches are often found with the empty cocoon of the Wasp occupying 
the cavity of the abdomen. An observer, who has watched the attacks of 
this Wasp, writes :—** The cockroach, as if cowed at its presence, imme- 
diately yields without a struggle. The Ampulex stings and paralyzes its 
victim, and then flies away with it.” 
Like many of the allied species, our Black Spider-wasp, whilst engaged 
in nest-building, and likewise when manipulating the spiders, emits a con- 
tinuous buzzing sound, similar to that of a large house-fly entangled in a 
web. In its other habits, I am not aware that it differs in any respect from 
its congeners, Like the Pompilus formosus, or Tarantula-killer, just men- 
tioned, it appears to feed upon the honey and pollen of native flowers, and 
its favourite nourishment is taken from the fragrant blossoms of the 
Kahikatoa (Leptospermum scoparium ), or tea-tree scrub of the colonists. 
The following communication, under the head of ** Notes on the Mason 
Bee," was made to the Auckland Institute, by Major Mair, R.M., on the 
14th June, 1875, and I have obtained his permission to embody it here. I 
ought to add, however, that Major Mair expressed a doubt as to whether he 
was right in designating the insect a Mason Bee :— 
** The accompanying account, clipped from a newspaper, agrees to some 
extent with my own experience of the habits of this insect, but here ihey 
confine their nests to wood-work. I first observed them building in my 
verandah in December last, and now (April 17th) they are still at work. 
Numbers of nests have been made in the crevices between the shingles and 
under the edges of the weather-boarding. In two instances, auger-holes in 
the wall-plates have been utilized. The latter have been broken and resealed 
several times. I have seen nests four inches long, with a diameter of three- 
sl 
