1987] West-Eberhard — Xenorhynchium nitidulum 319 
X. nitidulum adults emerged in the following order (with time 
elapsed since nest collection given in parentheses): male (32 days), 
female (42 days), female (52 days), male (60 days), female (61 days). 
When one of the closed cells produced nothing after more than three 
months I opened it and found that it contained two desiccated 
objects that appeared to be caterpillars but that were in such poor 
condition that they could not be identified. 
An abandoned nest (N3) was also collected. It consisted of 11 
cells, six of them sealed with mud and gum prior to abandonment. 
Two sealed cells contained chalcid parasites (five in one cell and 
seven in the other). A small larva was found in each of two open 
cells, and a large larva was in a sealed cell with three prey. Of the 
remaining cells, two were damaged by collection and the contents 
lost; two had been secondarily occupied by some other species (one 
was sealed with a thick mud plug, and one contained a vacated 
puparium); one contained a nearly mature male; and one open cell 
contained a desiccated adult male. 
N1 was inhabited by two adult females when captured. A third 
female caught entering the room with prey was probably associated 
with N1 which had the only cells in the room containing prey or 
larvae. It is also possible that this female was carrying the first prey 
to the empty cell of N2. Thus N1 was attended by at least two and 
probably three females. Another female, netted as she entered the 
room with mud, was probably building the incomplete cell of N2, 
since it was the only cell of the two nests present containing freshly 
applied mud. A fifth female, collected later by the owner of the 
room, was reported by him to be associated with the site of N2, but 
the two nests were so close together that this was difficult to 
confirm. 
The five females associated with these two nests were dissected. 
All of them had sperm in the spermathecae (were mated). The sper- 
matheca of one of the females known to be associated with N 1 was 
brownish in color, and her ovary contained many yellow bodies — 
both often characteristics of old female wasps. The female sitting in 
the empty cell of N 1 when it was collected had two well developed 
eggs in her ovary (measuring 2.5 mm and 2.0 mm in length). This 
was the most developed ovary of the five females. Three of the 
females had just one large egg each; and one, evidently a young 
female judging by the light color of her abdominal apodemes (see 
Richards, 1971), had undeveloped ovaries (no visible oocytes). 
