78 
Psyche 
[June 
region of Pike’s Peak, Colorado, at the flowers of Calochor- 
tus Gunnisonii Watson, Geranium csespitosum James, Mer- 
tensia ciliata (Torrey) ( =sibirica Don), Monarda fistulosa 
Linnaeus, Prunus melanocarpa (A. Nelson) ( =demissa of 
authors), Pentstemon glaber Pursh, P. glaucus Graham, P. 
gracilis Nuttall, Rubus deliciosus James, and R. strigosus 
Michaux. Bradley records P. texanus subsp. neomexicanus 
Rohwer at flowers of Astragalus , P. phacelix Rohwer at 
those of Phacelia neomexicana Thurber, and P. coquilletti 
Rohwer at those of Eriodictyon crassifolium Bentham. 
Since the nesting habits are known for only a few of the 
genera, it may be useful to review them briefly. Our most 
important lacuna in this respect concerns the Australian 
genera Paragia and Metaparagia , the behavior of which 
may well be totally different from that of the other Masar- 
idinse. 
Celonites. — The nesting habits of Celonites abbreviatus 
(Villers) were first described by J. Lichtenstein (1869, Ann. 
Soc. Ent. France, (4) IX, Bull., p. xxix) after observations 
made by H. Westphal in southern France. The female builds 
free cells of mud which she places one behind the other on 
dry stalks of plants and in which she stores a honey paste as 
food for the larva. (Some additional details are given by J. 
Giraud, 1871, Ann. Soc. Ent. France, (5) I, p. 379). More 
complete observations were made with this species by C. 
Ferton (1901, Ann. Soc. Ent. France, LXX, p. 139; and 
1910, Op cit., LXXIX, pp. 174-176), also in southern France. 
He found the nest fixed to stones. He states that the female 
lays the egg first, before bringing in any provisions, and 
that the full-grown larva lines the walls of the cell with a 
thin layer of silk. His account also seems to indicate that the 
female uses mass provisioning. 
C. afer Lepeletier (= C. fischeri of authors, not of Spi- 
nola) was likewise studied in southern France by J. Lich- 
tenstein (1875, Ann. Soc. Ent. France, (5) V, Bull., p. ccxi), 
who found its habits similar to those of C. abbreviatus. 
Nurse, near Aden, southern Arabia, also bred from cylin- 
drical mud cells a species referred by Bingham to C. fischeri 
(C. T. Bingham, 1898, Jl. Bombay Nat Hist. Soc., XII, 1, p. 
111 ). 
