26 
Some Solitary Wasps of Texas. 
Another nest which I observed an arvensis store and close -on 
August 14th I opened nearly a month later (September 9th). I 
was expecting to see a wasp emerge by this time, and had placed 
a bottle over the entrance to receive it. I found in the nest no 
offspring of the wasp, but the red pupa of a fly and fourteen cater- 
pillars, of which four had dried up, three were dead though in 
good condition and seven actually alive. The caterpillars* length 
of life is so striking that I deem it desirable to add the following 
table : 
CONDITION OF CATERPILLARS. 
Date. 
Begun to shrink. 
Dead but plump. 
Alive. 
September 9... 
September 14. 
September 19. 
September 26. 
September 29. 
October 11 
Thus three caterpillars lived 43 days, one 46 days and one re- 
mained, for 58 days , in a condition good enough to be added to any 
waspling*s bill of fare. 
A survey of these few facts would seem to indicate that, while 
the suspension of the egg and the young larva is a desirable con- 
dition and increases their chances of successful development, yet 
it is not an essential condition, as Fabre has contended. Nor is 
it essential, in consideration of the longevity of the paralyzed prey, 
that the caterpillars be devoured in the order in which they were 
stored. 
