1976] 
Callan — Gory tine Wasps in Trinidad 
325 
6 km north of St. Augustine; and in evergreen seasonal forest 
at Cumaca, about 14 km north of Sangre Grande. In both the 
Caura and Maracas Valleys the nesting sites were near streams. 
Wasps were also found nesting in the foothills of the Central 
Range in evergreen seasonal forest at Talparo and Mundo Nuevo, 
about 16 and 20 km respectively south of Arima. 
In two areas nesting sites were encountered at some distance 
from forest. One was at St. Augustine, a residential area with 
many planted trees 13 km east of Port of Spain. The other was 
at North Post, an open windswept hillside cleared of forest on 
the North Coast, about 10 km northwest of Port of Spain and 
within 500 m of the Caribbean Sea. 
Hoplisoides umbonicida Pate 
Hoplisoides umbonicida was described by Pate (1941) as a 
new species based on material I sent him from Trinidad in De- 
cember 1940. The type specimens, together with 3 cocoons and 
a specimen of the treehopper prey Umbonia spinosa (Fabricius) 
(Membracidae), are in the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, 
as are probably 2 further wasps, one with a specimen of the same 
treehopper prey pinned with it, which I sent Pate in March 1942. 
H. umbonicida is a medium-sized species (female 12 mm long, 
male 10 mm long), black but broadly marked with yellow on the 
head, thorax and abdomen. I first encountered it in the Caura 
Valley on 5 August 1938. A female burdened with a large tree- 
hopper was seen descending slowly to its nest in a narrow sandy 
beach deposited near a natural swimming-pool by the fast-flowing 
Tacarigua (or Caura) River. The nesting site was in rather coarse 
sand and was a true stream-side locality. The wasp appeared to 
drop silently out of the sky coming down ever more slowly as 
it lost height. Descent was more or less vertical from a height of 
about 2 m. Related species are known to approach the nest ob- 
liquely, slowly and from a considerable height. The wasp opened 
the nest quickly and plunged in precipitously with the prey. The 
nest was excavated and the burrow found to be oblique and no 
more than 10 cm long. Three cells were dug out each containing 
a cocoon, and the female was found in the nest with its prey in 
process of provisioning a fourth cell. It is possible that further 
cells were present with stored prey and developing wasp larvae, 
but they were not found. 
