50 
Some Solitary Wasps of Texas. 
lived at least half a day longer. On Ang. 28th three large fly-mag- 
gots (Mnscids) were crawling around the sand in the bottle as if 
trying to get out. The egg had disappeared. 
My third specimen (No. 46) came swooping down from the tree 
tops with her heav}^ burden. I have never seen the species out on 
the hunt, probably because she hunts altogether among the trees, 
the home of her prey. Each time No. 46 came home with a bug 
she descended out of the tree that overshadowed the nest. She car- 
ried in five bugs in two and a half hours ; completing her labors at 
7 :00 p. m., when she closed the nest. The nest was probably dug 
and provisioned on the same day (Aug. 27th), as was that of No. 
39, judging from the late hour at which the bugs were caught. I 
failed to trace the tunnel this time but came upon the chamber con- 
taining the bugs, which were all broad, gray ones of the genus 
Crytomenus, excepting one, a slender purplish bug belonging to the 
Lygaeidae. This latter was the first brought in and contained the 
egg which was attached in the identical manner as that of No. 39. 
If the egg was laid just after this first bug was carried in the length 
of the egg stage of this species is forty-one hours. The larva died 
after three days. Three bugs lieved two days; the other two were 
brought in dead. These bugs and the wasp’s egg are shown in Fig. 
14. ' 
The fourth and last specimen on which I have notes finished dig- 
ging her nest by 10 :12, Aug. 31. As was the case with No. 1, she 
made a series of locality studies in preparation for her first depart- 
ure by walking around on the sand in the neighborhood of her nest. 
At 10 :12 she closed up the entrance carefully and flew away. At 1 :00 
o’clock I returned to the nest, which was closed. At 1 :27 the wasp 
returned, coming down out of the neighboring trees. She did not 
descend in a sudden continuous swoop., but in gentle jerks as if she 
were descending a flight of stairs and had to pause at each step to ad- 
just her load. This jerky motion goes on until she hovers over a 
bush two feet high standing between the wasp and the nest. Then 
she takes a sudden dive through an opening between the branches of 
the bush and lands on her nest. This strange mode of approach was 
used each time a bug was brought home, at 1 :27, 2 :17, 3 :27, 4:41. 
It thus required over an hour for this individual to catch a bug as 
against one-half hour for the others. 
The chamber of this nest, which was closed like the others, was 
about the same dimensions as noted for the nest of No. 39. It con- 
tained five bugs, one of which was dead, three nearly dead and one 
