Fishes - Home

abdomen bluish, wings brown, purple effulgence. L. 24-28 mm. Pompilus
spp.
Front legs hairy, hind spiny. Nest in burrows in ground, hunt spiders, at
times cockroaches. Black with brilliant colours, abdomen attached
broadly, covered with grey powder, upper part of wings black generally.
Ceropales spp. Rather rare in India. Long legs, plain, abdomen short.C.
claripennis. Black, shining, yellow stripes, 2 yellow marks on thorax,
abdomen rusty red. L. 8-9 mm.
Fam. Eumenidae. (PI. IV, Fig. 57). Solitary wasps of temperate regions.
Wings folded longitudinally, spine at apex of mid tibiae, claws with teeth,
slender, 8-20 mm. Warning colours, petiole well marked, females with
stings. Tunnel in the ground, some known as mason or potter wasps,
construct oval or globular vaselike nests of mud, fastened to twigs, walls,
furniture etc. Predaceous on lepidopterous larvae, sometimes others, about
5-10 larvae for each cell. Egg deposited on a filament attached to wall of
nest and the nest scaled. Some enter houses. Less than 100 recorded in
India, about 20 in Maharashtra.
E. essuriens. Yellow, parts of the thorax black, hind legs and petiole
reddish. L. 16-20 mm. E. conica. Red with black bands, wings clouded. L.
18-25 mm. builds nests anywhere. E. arcuata. Black, two curved spots and
2 lines on thorax, 2 broad bands, lines and spots on abdomen yellow. L.
19-26 mm. Enters houses. Eumenes have a number of enemies.
Rhynchium spp. Small, no petiole. First abdomenal segment cupshaped,
slightly constricted or narrowed. Solitary. Enter houses freely, build little
round shells of clay, often use ready holes for nests closing them with clay
lids, feed young on caterpillars. Brownish red with black spots and lines or
black, red with bands, silvery hair. L, 12-20 mm. Odynerus spp. Very
similar to Rhynchium. More slender. Use crevices or holes for nests
generally, close with mud lids, larval food small caterpillars. Black,
shining with spots and bands or red with yellow bands or markings, L. 6-
11 mm.
FAUNA 468