60 
Some Solitary Wasps of Texas. 
moreover very much heightened by the transparency of the wings, 
by which these are rendered almost invisible. In fact, the first 
specimen I saw I at first did not distinguish from the dozens of 
ants in whose company it was running over the ground. My eye 
was attracted by a peculiar object tying on the ground, which proved 
to be a legless spider, and with so many ants running around, I 
knew that the spider could not have been lying there very long. 
Presently indeed, the wasp disclosed her identity by making several 
of her characteristic leaps of a foot or more from side to side, as 
she approached the spider. She grasped it by an anterior coxa and 
was about to make off with it, \vhen, for lack of time to follow I 
captured her. The spider not only had all of the legs removed, 
but one of the palps as well. It was a large Epeirid, an immense 
load for the little wasp. 
'The second specimen of this Agenia which came my way was the 
most skilful acrobatic performer I ever saw. She was carrying an 
Attid as long and much heavier than herself; but the load seemed 
a feather’s weight, for she carried it along so swiftly, so gracefully 
and with so little apparent exertion. She was carrying this spider 
in her mandibles and using her legs entirely for running up stems 
and over leaves. It was her method of progressing to climb the 
branches of weeds and bushes to their very tips, and then fly either 
across to another branch or onto the ground as far as she could. 
In this she resembled certain species of Pompilus , which, however, 
differ in climbing up stems and running on the ground backwards 
instead of forward. Every movement of Agenia was as. certain as 
it was swift, for she never missed her aim in flying from branch 
to branch. Her' descent even was easy and graceful and she came to 
the ground as lightly as a feather. Thus for a time she chased 
on from bush to bush, climbing up the stems and descending to 
the other side. Suddenly our pleasure came to naught by the in- 
terposition of the suspending thread of an Agelina web. In these 
the two were caught, the Attid sticking fast and the wasp escaping. 
Nor did the wasp ever return, for I left the spider over night and 
during the next morning finding it still on the same spot the fol- 
lowing noon. The spider had all the legs cut off except the anterior 
right; the palpi were present. 
I have seen this species out hunting on several occasions and 
have found her to be a most thorough hunter. All her motions 
betokened the greatest excitement. In her quick flight from place 
to place, she strikingly reminds one of Agenia acctpta , the second 
species, which darts around like her lighter cousiu of the post-oak 
