1972] 
Kurczewski & Evans — Bothy nostethus 
9i 
burrow and collected, facing head outward, 6 cm from the entrance. 
The “weak tarsal rake” of the foreleg of the female (Menke, 1968) 
and the variation in the burrow configurations and the positions of 
the cells suggest that females of this species use pre-existing burrows 
for the initial portions of their nests. 
Prey transport, entry , and exit. Two females (Note nos. H23, 
H23K) were observed taking a total of 14 prey into their nests 
during a 3-hour period. One wasp (H23) spent from 5 to 30 
(mean 12.5) minutes between provisions; the other (H23K) took 
longer ( 12-40 minutes ; mean 23 ) . In every case the beetle was carried 
in flight, dorsal-side-upward and head-forward. The female grasped 
the beetle’s antennae with the mandibles, and held its body with 
the legs. During one entry in which the entrance had been some- 
what disturbed, the provisioning wasp, upon landing, was attacked 
twice by a female satellite-fly of the genus Senotainia (Sarco- 
phagidae: Miltogramminae) . She did not release the prey but 
entered in the usual manner. 
Because of the concealed situation of the nest entrances, which 
were often behind overhanging plants and rootlets, the females were 
prevented from entering directly. One female (H23) invariably 
landed outside on the cliff-face before diving in, and the other 
(H23K), whose entrance was even more concealed (see Fig. 2), 
always landed on a plant to the left of the entrance and ran down- 
ward for a few centimeters before entering. The first wasp 
remained inside her nest, on the average, i 1 /^ minutes before exiting 
to search for the next prey; the second wasp usually stayed inside 
1V2-2 minutes before appearing in the entrance. These relatively 
long periods of time were undoubtedly related to the considerable 
distances inside the nests to which the females had to proceed with 
the prey. The first female, apparently disturbed by our observations, 
made a 5-second orientation flight after taking the first prey inside, 
followed by a 1 -2-second orientation flight after the second prey, 
but thereafter she did not orient. The second female, also seemingly 
disturbed by our presence, made a 1 -2-second orientation flight after 
the initial prey was taken in but did not orient thereafter. 
Cazier and Mortenson (1965) were unable to obtain informa- 
tion on the manner of prey transport of the female of B. distinctus 
they observed in Arizona. They described one activity which may 
have been the female’s orientation flight. The wasp they observed 
was much more active than the ones we studied, spending from only 
35 seconds to 6 minutes in the field between prey. After entering 
