208 
HYMENOPTERA. 
Fig trees, which possess numerous holes and chinks. It is not an un¬ 
common sight to see an Ampulex hurrying along the tree trunk search¬ 
ing hole after hole for cockroaches and occasionally flying to a distant 
branch only to return and continue the search in a few seconds. As far 
as observed, this species confines itself exclusively to species of Peri- 
planeta for its prey. The specimen of Periplaneta is invariably bigger 
in size than the wasp itself. This wasp does not construct any nest, 
but generally makes use of some empty hole on the trunk of the tree, 
wherein it drags its captive. The manoeuvres employed in capturing 
and paralysing the cockroach are almost the same as in Pompilids, but 
here there is not so much careful tact and dexterity displayed on the 
part of the wasp in dealing with the cockroach. The reason apparently 
is that the cockroach is not armed with any poisonous weapons ; it has 
to depend solely on its active motions and irritating spines for defence. 
Unlike the Pompilid and spider fight, the scene of the combat often 
changes, the cockroach taking to its wings very often. The fight is 
simply a pursuit of the desperately flying blattid on the part of the 
wasp and the moment it manages to alight on the back of the captive, 
the latter submits. The wasp loses no time in administering the sting. 
The sting is thrust along the side of the big prothorax and reaches the 
oesophageal ganglia. The cockroach does not, however, appear much 
the worse after the sting, and if the wasp after this so-called paralysing 
strays away in search of a hole, the cockroach manages to slip away 
slowly into some adjacent hiding place. This has been observed more 
than once. 
One species of Stigmus has been observed by Dudgeon to store 
Aphides in holes in wood made by a boring beetle. (Jo. Bo. Nat. Hist. 
Soc. XV, p. 12.) S. congruus, Wlk., and/S. nigripes, Motsch., have been 
observed collecting aphids in Behar. Gorytes alipes, Bingh.,isnot un¬ 
common in Western India ; we have observed it burrowing in the damp 
soil of flower pots, the burrows nearly two inches deep, and stocked 
with the very common Fulgorid, Dictyophara lineata, Don. Gorytes 
pictus, Sm., has been observed to visit the rolled up sissoo leaves inhab¬ 
ited by the larva of Apoderus blandus (Curculionidae), but the observer 
was unable to determine that the larva was carried off. It is possible 
that, since the weevil larva is in a case, this species paralyses it and 
lays an egg on it, thus not requiring a nest. 
