1960] 
Evans — Bembix n-scripta 
57 
with one another in flight briefly. Males were generally active 0800- 
1130 and again, in lesser numbers, 1600- 1800. Several were seen 
visiting the dowers of Gaillardia pulchella for nectar, as were several 
females. At 1630 on September 8 a pair was seen in copula on these 
flowers. I hey remained together for two minutes, then separated 
briefly and once again came together. The details of copulation were 
essentially as described for the Texas colony. 
Nesting behavior of females. — The nests in this area tended to be 
well separated, the closest nests being about half a meter apart. New 
nests were started in the morning and completed in the late after- 
noon; during much of the day the entrance to such a nest would be 
closed with a plug of sand thrown up from the inside, where the fe- 
male was presumably resting or digging only intermittently. During 
the more active periods of digging the wasp now and then comes out 
and clears the sand from the entrance. Eventually a fairly large 
mound of sand accumulates outside the entrance. When the nest is 
completed, the female comes out (without closing the entrance behind 
her) and commences to level this mound of sand. The leveling move- 
ments were found to be precisely the same as in the Texas colony 
(fig. 1). They result in the mound being not so much leveled as 
spread out and moved slightly farther from the nest entrance. Follow- 
ing leveling, the 10 cm. directly in front of the entrance are typically 
smooth, with beyond this the mound, measuring about 20 cm. long by 
18 cm. wide. Leveling was observed several times and little variation 
was noted; always it occurred in late afternoon and required 15-25 
minutes. Following completion of a new cell in an old nest, little addi- 
tional sand is usually thrown out, but such sand as accumulates is 
treated in the same manner. Also, when a female emerges from her 
nest in the late afternoon and is about to begin bringing in prey, she 
clears the entrance of sand and proceeds to level this sand briefly in 
the same manner. All individuals observed exhibited these leveling 
movements. 
The general structure of the nests in this area was very much as 
described for the Texas colony. However, they were slightly deeper. 
In the eight nests which were dug out, burrow length varied from 
30 to 42 cm. (mean 35 cm.), cell depth from 16 to 23 cm. (mean 18 
cm.). Five of the eight nests had but one cell, while two had tw r o and 
one had three (fig. 2). None of these nests had received the final 
closure when I dug them out, so all might eventually have had more 
cells. However, since I saw several females digging new nests toward 
