74 



HYMENOPTERA 



A 



Fig. 29. — Nest of Eumenes 

 coardata : A, tlie nest 

 attacVied to Avood : B, de- 

 tached, showing the larva. 

 a, the larva ; b, the parti- 

 tion of the cell. (After 

 Andre.) 



nests (Fig. 29) of this Insect are often attached to the twigs of 

 'shrubs, wliile those of the two species previously mentioned are 



usually placed on objects that offer a 

 large surface for fixing the foundations 

 to, such as walls. According to Goureau 

 the larva of this species forms in one 

 corner of its little abode, separated by a 

 partition, a sort of dust-heap in which 

 it accumulates the various debris re- 

 sulting from the consumption of its 

 stores. 



Eumenes conica, according to Home, 

 constructs in Hindostan clay-nests with 

 very delicate walls. This species pro- 

 visions its nest with ten or twelve green 

 caterpillars ; on one occasion this ob- 

 server took from one cell eight green 

 caterpillars and one black. It is much 

 attacked by parasites owing, it is 

 thought, to the dehcacy of the walls of the cells, which are 

 easily pierced ; from one group of five cells two specimens only 

 of the Uumenes were reared. 



Oclynerus, with numerous sub-genera, the names of which 

 are often used as those of distinct genera, includes the larger 

 part of the solitary wasps ; it is very widely distributed over the 

 earth, and is represented by many peculiar species even in the 

 isolated Archipelago of Hawaii ; in Britain we have about fifteen 

 species of the genus. The Oclynerus are less accomplished 

 architects than the species of Eumenes, and usually play the 

 more humble parts of adapters and repairers ; they live either in 

 holes in walls, or in posts or other woodwork, or in burrows in 

 the earth, or in stems of plants. Several species of the sub- 

 genus IJophipus have the remarkable habit of constructing 

 burrows in sandy ground, and forming at their entry a curvate, 

 freely projecting tube placed at right angles to the main bur- 

 row, and formed of the grains of sand brought out by the 

 Insect during excavation and cemented together. The habits of 

 one such species were described by Eeaumur, of another by 

 Dufour ; and recently Fabre has added to the accounts of these 

 naturalists some important information drawn from his own 



