226 
Psyche 
[December 
NOTES ON THE NESTS OF ODYNERUS (ANCISTRO- 
CERUS) BIRENINACULATUS SAUSSURE. 
By Charles W. Johnson. 
Boston Society of Natural History. 
Early in May, 1923, Mr. F. E. Zeissig, of Ware, Mass., 
brought me four nests of this interesting solitary wasp. The 
nests are irregular lumps of coarse hardened clay, built around 
small twigs, the leaves of the tree or shrub being sometimes 
imbedded in the clay. The cells are near the center, arranged 
somewhat radially and with a thin silky lining. The nest is 
figured by Viereck in the Hymenoptera of Connecticut, plate 4, 
figure 1. 
Having secured this wasp only from nests, and as species 
of parasitic Diptera (Bombyliidse) have been obtained from the 
nests of solitary wasps, I placed each nest in a separate jar and 
numbered these as the wasps began to emerge. Althouth ir- 
regular in form the nests varied but little in size, nests numbers 
1 and 2 having a diameter of about 40 mm. and numbers 3 
and 4 a diameter of about 35 mm. 
Nest No. 1. Two males emerged May 14, gnawing their 
way through the hard dry clay; on the 15th to 18th one and two 
males appeared each day, until the 19th when four males and 
one female emerged; on the 26th another female appeared, and 
on the 28th two, making a total of 13 males and 4 females. The 
specimens emerged through 13 openings in the nest. 
Nest No. 2. One male appeared May 15, three on the 17th 
and one on the 21st. On the 22d one female emerged and on the 
23d an ichneumon parasite, Acroricnus junceus Cress., female. 
On the 24th two females emerged and on the 25th four, a total 
of 5 males, 7 females, and a parasite. They issued through six 
openings. 
Nest No. 3. Two males emerged on May 21 and two on 
the 22d, one female on the 24th, one on the 25th, two on the 
26th, and four on the 27th, a total of 4 males and 8 females. 
They emerged through nine openings. 
