326 
Psyche 
[September-December 
The prey carried by the female was an adult hoplophorine tree- 
hopper Umbonia spinosa. This is the largest membracid known 
from Trinidad, 15 mm long, bright green with 6 vivid red longi- 
tudinal lines on the enlarged pronotum, which is drawn out dor- 
sally into a sharp point, and bears a resemblance to a large plant 
thorn. It is a rare species in Trinidad, where it has only once been 
found feeding on indigenous woody shrubs or small trees of the 
genus Inga (Leguminosae), which do not themselves bear thorns 
and often occur in the understory of lower montane rain forest. 
The prey was actually larger than the wasp itself, and was clasped 
venter to venter by the female’s middle legs with the head fore- 
most and the enlarged pointed pronotum projecting downwards. 
Had the sand not been friable at the entrance to the nest it would 
have been difficult for the female to enter so rapidly with such 
large prey. As it was, in entering the nest the prey was displaced 
rearwards to the hind legs of the wasp and the sharp point of the 
pronotum made a clearly perceptible furrow in the sand at the 
nest entrance as the prey was drawn in. 
Three cocoons were removed from the nest. They were ovoid, 
greyish, hard and smooth, rounded at the anterior end and pointed 
at the posterior end. Two were about 12 mm long and 5.5 mm 
wide and the other about 10 mm long and 5 mm wide. There were 
no pores in the walls of the cocoons. Female wasps emerged from 
the larger cocoons and a male from the smaller one, and repre- 
sented the type, one of the female paratypes and the allotype re- 
spectively on which Pate based his description of H. umbonicida. 
My second encounter with what I took to be this species was 
on 25 January 1942 at Talparo, where I found it nesting in the 
fine, friable sand on the floor of a sandpit. Several wasps were 
observed provisioning their nests with large membracids. They 
descended slowly to the closed nest entrance, which they opened 
quickly with the fore-legs, and disappeared from sight rapidly 
with their prey. Two females were captured, one with an adult 
of Umbonia spinosa. No nests were excavated. The 2 females 
and specimen of prey, which were sent to Pate in March 1942, 
came from this -source. 
Hoplisoides vespoides (F. Smith) 
In 1973 material from Trinidad (as well as a female from Para- 
maribo, Surinam collected on 13 October 1938 by D. C. Geijskes) 
