1974] 
Alcock & Gamboa — Cerceris 
529 
Table 1. Site attachment of male C. simplex. A total of sixteen individuals 
marked 23-27 July. 
1 
2 
3 
4 
Days At Site 
5 6 7 8 
9 
10 
11 
6 
, 
1 
Number of Wasps 
1 2 
, 
2 
2 
The resident males were repeatedly observed pursuing regular 
circuits between 0839-1230 hrs. and rarely as late as 1400 M.S.T. 
Four carefully studied individuals possessed routes ranging from 
7.0-18.5 m in length and from 2-3 m in width (Fig. 1). However, 
marked wasps also made occasional forays up to six m from their 
customary route. Males in the roadside ditch cruised in a fairly 
rapid and erratic flight going down one side of the ditch skimming 
over flowering Asclepias , and then back up the other. Orchard males 
flew from one clump of Salsola to another sailing around and over 
them, sometimes visiting flowering weeds along the route (Fig. 1). 
Wasp “yellow” had the smallest circuit of the males we studied 
and required a mean of 32 sec to complete one flight about its home 
range (N — 9; range, 22-68 sec; 28 July, 0820-1115). Most of a 
male’s time was spent in flight, although the wasps regularly alighted 
on perches in their cruising area (Fig. 2). For example, “white” 
landed on one branch of a rose bush 16 times in 35 minutes (23 
July) remained perched an average of 6:5 sec (range, 1-19 sec). 
Several males had a primary perch to which they commonly returned 
as well as several secondary perches that were used less frequently. 
Males pursued any medium-sized flying insect including a wide 
variety of wasps, beeflies, and brilliant black and red hemipterans as 
well as male and female conspecifics. Males made physical contact 
only with conspecific females. The indiscriminate nature of the pur- 
suit flight and the absence of grappling or contact between males 
leads us to believe that male C. simplex lack behavior designed to 
defend a territory. The great overlap in routes travelled by different 
males (at least four males regularly entered “blue’s” circuit and 
easily that many were present in “white’s” area) further suggests 
that males of this species occupy home ranges and not territories. 
Attempted matings 
Despite many hours of observation, attempted copulations were 
seen only three times (at 0915, 0925, 1030), all in the orchard. 
In one case a female cruised slowly through a Salsola clump occa- 
