TRACHEATA 



38s 



species of this family; it makes small rounded cells of mud, 



which it attaches to some plant, very generally 



to heath. In each cell it lays one egg, and 



stores up some provision of honey to serve as 



food for the larva ; the cell is then closed. 



Some species of this genus are carnivorous, 



and when this is the case the mother stings 



some caterpillar or other insect larva in the 



ventral nerve cord in such a way as to render 



it motionless without killing it ; the inert 



larva is then deposited in the cell to serve as food for the 



grub of the wasp. 



Family Masaridae. — No members of this family occur in 



Fig. 219. — Eumenes 

 smithii. 



flQ. 220. — Masaris vesjoiformis. 



Britain, and the number of genera is small. They construct 

 nests in banks of earth, with passages leading down to them. 



Group 3. FossoEiA. 



These are sometimes termed digging wasps ; they have no 

 bend in their antennae, and their legs are elongated. The 

 females construct passages in sand or earth, or sometimes in 

 wood, and lay their eggs at the end of these tubes. They live 

 upon honey and pollen, and either convey fresh food to their 

 larvae every day or store up in the tube a sufficient number 

 of insects or larvae, paralysed by a sting in the nervous 



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