328 
Psyche 
[September-December 
female busily digging its nest. This individual was captured and 
identified as H. vespoides. 
Nesting sites of this species were subsequently discovered in 
2 further areas. One was at North Point, where on 1 1 March 1949 
I encountered several females provisioning their nests. I took a 
female carrying a large, probably 5th instar nymph of Umbonia 
spinosa. This was the only occasion on which I found a nymph 
and not an adult membracid being used as prey. The other site 
was in the Maracas Valley, where on 20 January 1951 I captured 
a female digging its nest in sandy soil near the Maracas River. 
Hoplisoides iridipennis (F. Smith) 
This is a small black species with a pair of conspicuous trans- 
verse yellow bands on the dorsum of the thorax. It ranges from 
Mexico to Brazil. I first encountered it at St. Augustine on 31 
October 1943 when a female was observed entering its nest in a 
flat sandy area alongside a path. The wasp was captured and the 
nest excavated. The burrow was oblique and descended for about 
8 cm. A single cell was found containing 3 adult tragopine tree- 
hoppers, all Horiola picta (Coquebert) (Membracidae). The prey 
was lying ventral side up and showed no sign of movement. No 
egg was found. H. picta is a widely distributed gregarious tree- 
hopper, 4.5 mm long, with dark and light brown markings. It is 
known as the cacao podhopper and is one of the commonest 
membracids associated with cacao ( Theobroma cacao L.) in 
Trinidad, where it is regarded as a minor pest. Aggregations of 
nymphs and adults are often found feeding on the petioles of 
flowers and the stalks of developing cacao pods. 
I next discovered this wasp on 3 June 1949 at Talparo. A fe- 
male was seen flying slowly down to its nest carrying an adult 
darnine treehopper Darnoides brunneus (Germar), a smooth, 
olive-green, solitary species, about 5.5 mm long. The prey was 
clasped by the wasp’s middle legs and held ventral side up, head 
foremost. The nest was not excavated. It was located in friable 
sand on the floor of the same sandpit in which H. umbonicida 
and H. vespoides were found nesting. 
My third encounter with H. iridipennis was on 3i August 1949 
in the Maracas Valley. A female was seen approaching its nest 
carrying an adult membracine treehopper Erechtia bicolor Walker. 
