Transactions Texas Academy of Science. 55 
trouble in getting into her nest even when there are no well recog- 
nized land-marks present to guide her. But instead of “making 
haste slowly,” this wasp loses time and energy in the hurry. She 
immediately begins to dig for the entrance after having dropped the 
bug, unlike Bembex, which continues to keep hold on the fly for some 
time while digging. After the nest has been opened, the bug is 
taken in exactly as before. In a minute the wasp comes out again 
backwards, scratching out sand, possibly some that had caved in. 
Finally she comes out head first scratching out sand, closing the 
entrance imperfectly, and flies away. By 4 :51 she had come back 
again and was busy excavating the nest, scratching the sand with 
her forefeet and pushing it out with her abdomen. In this way 
she soon closed the entrance from within and remained inside one 
minute. At her appearance this time, she came out h6ad foremost, 
scratching in sand as she came, after the fashion of the larger bug- 
catchers above described, when they are ready to close up the nest 
and leave it. This I supposed Hoplisoides to be doing in this in- 
stance and my suspicion proved to be wellfounded, because, when 
the nest was nearly filled with sand, the wasp began to carry into it 
bits of debris, that lay scattered about continuing at the same time 
to scratch in sand on top of them, like Ammophila is wont to do. 
While busy on the surface Hoplisoides holds her wings extended 
out obliquely like the social wasps. When held at a certain angle 
to the sun’s rays, the wings have a metallic blue lustre. 
Convinced that the work on the nest was nearing completion I 
caught the wasp and immediately dug up the nest and came upon 
the chamber three-eighths inches in diameter and one-half inch 
long, five inches from the entrance and two and one-half inches 
below the surface of the soil. The passage from the entrance to the 
chamber was filled with sand and could be traced only near the 
ends. 
The chambers contained seven bugs, among which lay the above 
mentioned piece of wood as though the wasp had carried it in, sup- 
posing it to be a bug. The bugs were all nymphs of the same 
species, one of the family Membracidae. Three of the bugs re- 
sponded to stimulation. The egg, 2 mm. in length was attached 
to the ventral surface of the bug close to and parallel to the man- 
gin of the thorax opposite the first and second pairs of legs. From 
its position I supposed this bug to be one of the last brought in. 
On September 4th, two days later two bugs responded to stimula- 
tion by a slight twitching. The egg looked dead on this day and 
finally withered. 
