Transactions Texas Academy op Science, 
45 
is a cylindrical tube more or less bent. It is three to five-eighths 
of an inch in diameter and runs down in a gentle slope for eighteen 
inches to a slight dilatation, the chamber, nine or ten inches below 
the surface. Fig. 21 is a photograph of a nest in section. It shows 
at about its middle point a rather abrupt turn to the left. 
If the nest has been closed, Monedula opens it without dropping 
her prey which; she may happen to be carrying home. If the fly is 
accidentally dropped it is always discarded, even carried off to a 
distance and flung away. 
This fly-catcher, like the other fly-catchers of the family, stings 
to kill its victim. Every fly that I examined was dead, even those 
just brought home and dropped before the entrance. 
(b.) Notes on the Stinging Habits op Tachysptex Texanus, 
Or., Bembex Texanus, Cr. and Notoglossa 
(Oxybelus) Americana, Rob. 
It has been supposed of a number of fly-catchers that they pounce 
upon their victim in mid-air. This seems to have been the case with 
a specimen of T. texanus that come under my observation. I was 
busy working in the sand when I heard a light buzz at my right. 
Tacky pt ex was inflicting the death-sting on a fly of the domestic 
species, much larger than herself, and the two had dropped to the 
ground from above. Possibly the fly had been attacked while rest- 
ing on a branch of a near-by tree but circumstances pointed rather 
to the conclusion that the struggle had begun with both on the 
wing. The fly lay helpless on its back and the wasp lay across the 
fly’s thorax curled around the left side with her sting fixed in the 
fly’s sternum. I placed the tow in a collecting-bottle with some sand. 
For two minutes the wasp held the fly impaled on her sting while 
she spent some time washing her face and antennae. She also 
walkdd around in the bottle, still carrying the fly, until she discov- 
ered that she was imprisoned, when she dropped her victim and flew 
excitedly around. 
This observation recalls Fabre’s assertion that Oxybelus carries 
home the flies impaled on the sting. The Peckhams, however, found 
that the wasp holds the fly with her hind legs and allows it to pro- 
trude so far beyond the abdomen as to give it the appearance of be- 
ing attached to the sting. 
About the noon hour on a hot, sunny day, when the impulse to 
hunt is at its height, Bembex can be seen following her favorite oc- 
cupation. One would suppose that where flies are most plentiful 
there the wasp would most often be seen. And this is found to be a 
