60 
Psyche 
[April 
piece of food held down against its ventral abdominal segments 
beneath its head. On June 29 it started spinning, but did not 
finish its cocoon until July 2. Six days later it pupated and on 
July 24 shed its pupal skin, emerging the next day. In captivity 
this wasp, a female, lived until August 22, nearly a month after 
emerging. The lengths of its stages were as follows: egg, 2 days; 
larva, 15 days; pupa, 16 days. 
Ancistrocerus albophaleratus de Saussure. 
Two nests built by wasps of this species came under obser- 
vation. Ashmead (1894) records it as having been bred from an 
oak gall in Massachusetts. 
Nest No. 14- This nest was started July 4 at about 4 P. M. 
The nest builder was observed rather constantly until July 10, 
when she was found dead within the entrance of her uncompleted 
nest. The preceding day had been rainy and may have brought 
about her untimely death, but the somewhat erratic construction 
of her nest may indicate that she was at the- end of her resources. 
Nest No. 21. This nest of albophaleratus was commenced 
July 19 and finished five days later. During a cool, wet day the 
wasp was inadvertently knocked from her nest, while she was 
apparently sleeping and lost in the grass. Although she re- 
turned the next day, her absence may have given an opportunity 
for a fly to enter her nest and deposit eggs, the larvse from which 
later destroyed the entire nest and its contents. 
The tube in which nest no. 14 was built had an inside 
diameter of 7.5 mm. Its inner end being completely closed, the 
wasp built no basal partition. The first cell was 18 mm. long 
and contained about 14 caterpillars; the second, 15 mm. in 
length, contained only six; the third cell, 16 mm. long, was 
empty; the fourth cell had a very imperfect basal partition, in 
which spaces had been left and was 10 mm. long. There was an 
egg suspended in this cell, but no caterpillars had been provided. 
It was in this cell that the wasp was found dead. A rim of mud 
about the periphery of its outer end showed that an attempt 
