238 
LETTEES FEOM ALABAMA. 
the slough of a perfected insect. In a much smaller 
nest I found but one cell, and no exuvice^ but six 
spiders all dried. The long thimble-like nests were 
divided into cells in a single series, by transverse 
partitions of mud. The children soon showed me 
the insects to which the nests belonged ; although, 
as the season was spring, they were not then 
building. They were several species of the genus 
Felo])(Bus ; slender bodied wasps, resembling in 
form the Sand- wasps and Ichneumons of Europe. 
As the summer advanced, I cultivated an ac- 
quaintance with these funny little architects, and 
had opportunities of watching the whole process of 
building ; and thus of setting at rest, to my own 
satisfaction, the disputed point of ownership to 
these nests, which some entomologists have attri- 
buted to Eumenes^ supposing the PelopcEus to be 
parasitical.'^ I transcribe now from my journal. 
June 30. — I watched with much interest the 
proceedings of a Dauber in building her mud-cells; 
it is a pretty species {Pelopceus fiavipes), She has 
chosen the ceiling of a cupboard in my sitting- 
* The following observations of Mr. Westwood’s show how 
fallacious it often is to draw positive conclusions in science from 
mere analogy. According to Palisot de Beauvois the insect 
Pelo^ceus places in each cell a green caterpillar, or spider 
[quasi, but one] which is then closed; but according to Bonnet, 
the cells are revisited by the parent fly, after the grub has con- 
sumed the enclosed food, in order to give it a fresh supply, and 
which is repeated until it has attained its full growth. Such is 
the opinion given in various works ; but W. Saunders in a me- 
moir on the habits of some Indian insects (Trans. Entom. Soc. 
vol. i. p. 62), seems to have satisfactorily proved that these nests 
are of Eiimenes, and that Pelopoei are parasites there. In sup- 
port of this opinion I may observe, 1st, that the legs of the female 
PelopcBus are similar, and unprovided with apparatus for the 
construction of - such nests ; and 2nd, that it is only among the 
bees and wasps that we find the habit of constructing nests with 
materials brought from a distance.” — Classif. of Insects, ii. 206. 
