DAUBKE WASPS. 355 



the elk ; in another they are slender, and curved like the horns 

 of a bull, and there are other species quite as bizarre in form. It 

 is from these creatures, more especially from the first-mentioned, 

 that the Pelopaeus selects her victims, and it is evident that the 

 . jaws of the young Pelopaeus must be exceedingly strong to be 

 enabled to pierce their hard and well-armed bodies. Like the 

 previously-mentioned insect, the Pelopaeus makes a loud and 

 cheerful buzzing while engaged in her work of building. 



Mr; Bates, who has described these two insects, has likewise 

 mentioned a builder insect of the same order, called Melipona 

 fasciculata. The genus to which this insect belongs is a very 

 large one, containing some forty-five species, some of which are 

 very common in woods, and being extremely small, measuring 

 only the twelfth of an inch in length, they are very annoying to 

 the traveller, getting into his nostrUs and worrying him in 

 various ways. Fortunately, they do not sting, but their bite is 

 very sharp, and if made on a sensitive surface like the lining 

 membrane of the nostril, can inflict very severe pain. 



The form of habitation is various, according to the species, but 

 they all use clay for that purpose, kneading it with their man- 

 dibles, and then passing it to the hind legs and pressing it into 

 the hair-fringed depression which is popularly called the basket. 

 Some species are accustomed to employ any casual crevice as a 

 nest, stufl&ng it up with clay, and leaving only a little orifice 

 through which they can pass. Others again make long tubes of 

 clay, with trumpet-shaped mouths, and it is a remarkable fact 

 that a number of the bees are always at the entrance as sentinels, 

 just as is the case with the hive bee when wasps are abroad. 



In the " Zoologist," for 1864, p. 582, is a very interesting 

 description, by Mr. P. H. Gosse, of the proceedings of insects 

 which he appropriately calls the Dauber Wasps, and which 

 belong to the same genus as the Pelopaeus mentioned above. 

 One insect he identifies as Pelopaeus flavipes, and the other is 

 probably Pdopceus spirifer. One of these insects is now before 

 me, and a very pretty creature it is. In shape it exactly re- 

 sembles that which is figured on page 353, but the colours are 

 dififerent. The general hue is deep brown-black, very shining 

 in the abdomen, and softened by thick down upon the thorax. 



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