1974 ] Evans , Matthews & Callan — Rubrica surinamensis 343 
Use of Unusual Prey 
Despite the many records of R . surinamensis taking flies (there 
are numerous published records as well as over 200 new records 
summarized in Table 2), we are now able to report 4 records of the 
use of non-dipterous prey, 2 from Trinidad and 2 from Argentina. 
We assume that these were in the nature of “mistakes/’ that is, that 
the wasp struck them in the course of fly-hunting and for some reason 
failed to discriminate them from their more usual prey. Since some 
of the Lepidoptera were found in cells only as wings, it is obvious 
that the bodies had been accepted as food by the larvae. 
On 2 December 1941, at St. Augustine, Trinidad, EMC ob- 
served a female flying toward her nest carrying a dragonfly, Perithe- 
mis moona Kirby (Odonata, Libellulidae) . This is a yellow-winged 
species with a body length of about 25 mm. As the prey was held 
well back, probably by the middle legs, it extended some distance 
behind the abdomen of the wasp. The wasp was caught with her 
prey, which was dead; the nest was unfortunately not located. On 
11 March 1947, at St. Augustine, E. A. Fitzpatrick took a female 
that was carrying a small skipper butterfly, Panoquina sp. (Lepi- 
doptera, Hesperiidae) . The prey was dead when caught. 
We found the wings of Lepidoptera in two nests at Las Termas, 
Santiago del Estero, Argentina (HEE, note nos. C63, 64). One 
nest contained the wings of a skipper ( Monca sp., Hesperiidae) 
along with 3 flies and a half-grown larva. The other nest, only 2 
m away, contained the wings of two moths (both probably Loxostege 
sp., Pyralididae) . This cell contained many flies and a nearly full- 
grown larva. 
Cell Cleaning 
As noted in the introduction, two observers in Argentina have 
seen females flying from their nests carrying the remains of flies or 
bits of debris. However, this has not been reported by other workers. 
Although our studies of the aggregations in Trinidad and Colombia 
were fairly detailed, we did not observe this behavior, and the 
numerous nests excavated at Cali usually contained many fly re- 
mains with the larva or cocoon. 
However, our experience at Yacochuya, near Cafayate, Argentina, 
was quite different. When we discovered this small aggregation on 
the morning of 2 February 1972, a number of females were seen to 
fly from their nests and drop small objects some distance away. 
