68 Some Solitary Wasps of Texas. 
(b) POMPILOGASTER FUSCIPENNIS (LEPEL) . 
This wasp with black legs and thorax and bright red abdomen is 
a furious hunter, flying from plant to plant in a whirlwind. No 
wonder therefore that I lost sight of a specimen so suddenly one 
afternoon as she was carrying off her prey. A flash of red and 
green is all I saw as wasp and spider tumbled down a hole in the 
sand and disappeared. The hole lead into a burrow that had been 
dug by some rodent and extended for many feet just beneath the 
surface of the sand. I have noticed other spider ravishers choose 
such a place to hide their spider and to dig their nest. Solid black 
soil, which cracks in dry weather, offers more opportunities in this 
way than does the sandy land where most of my observations were 
made. 
The wasp remained inside the burrow one hour and twenty min- 
utes. Thinking that the wasp had by that time escaped at another 
point along the burrow, I dug this up and came upon the wasp, 
that had buried the spider in a shallow hole which it had dug in 
the side of the burrow. The spider, which was dead, was a large 
green “cotton spider” belonging to the genus Dolomedes. The 
wasp remained in the vicinity for half an hour, when I caught her. 
(c) Pompilid That Does Not Bury its Prey. 
In the Cambridge Natural History, vol. VI, p. 106, Sharp makes 
mention of Emery’s account of “some Pompilids that do not bury 
their prey but, after stinging it and depositing an egg, simply leave 
the spider on the spot.” Such an one came flying about our veranda 
with businesslike airs one fine July day. She was of a brilliant 
metallic blue, somewhat lighter than Pelopaeus coeruleus. She 
looked into every nook and cranny of the walls that struck her 
fancy. Finally she remained some little time behind a detached 
piece of wallpaper from which the edge of a spider’s web protruded. 
Looking down I saw the wasp tugging away at a spider; but this 
had its claws so thoroughly entangled in its web that the wasp was 
forced to desist. 
After stinging this spider the wasp spent five or six minutes 
flying about, resting on the rafters or running up and down the 
walls. At the end this time she disappeared behind the head- 
casing of a door where another spider had sperad its web. Pres- 
ently the wasp came forth dragging the spider backwards over its 
own web with her mandibles fastened to one of its front coxae. 
The spider was deposited a few inches below the edge of the casing 
