Some wasps make important and prolonged use of the abdomen in the final closure of the tunnel in nesting. This is well illustrated by several species of the spider wasps belonging to the Pompilidae. The use consists of forceful blows or a rapid tapping of the soil with the end or body of the abdomen, resulting in a packing of the nesting material and subsequent greater safety and security to the young. Less well-known and conspicuous examples may sometimes be met with in other wasps.

Two of the species described below were discovered very recently and constitute a very interesting addition to our Melyrid fauna. The individuals or units of a species vary more or less and this variation makes the work of the taxonomist rather uncertain and difficult as regards the characterization of a species, until considerable series has been studied from some single locality. When a knowledge of the range and degree of variation has once been obtained, the systematist can proceed with greater confidence as regards the status of the species he describes. Collectors should bear in mind the need of series for the study of variation.

While it is not unlikely that additional species will be discovered in the Pacific Coast region, perhaps well northward in Alaska, the Papaipema fauna which reaches the Atlantic seaboard of our country will doubtless remain much the richer comparatively.

In a recent paper (1931, Can. Ent., LXIII, 30 et seq.) I reviewed the bicolor group of the genus Ephemerella and in the present one I purpose dealing with the remainder of our eastern species and tabulating the results of breeding experiments, carried on during the past three years by Messrs. Walley, Milne and myself, as far as they relate to this genus.

Certain invaluable words and phrases as “apparently”, “seems to be”, and “it appears” have become to be an almost necessary part of the equipment of scientific invesigators and writers. The majority of the articles that come to hand are liberally sprinkled with such words, and perhaps not unnecessarily so.