Boros István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 52. (Budapest 1960)
Móczár, L.: The loess wall of Tihany and the nesting of Odynerus spiricornis Spin. (Hymenoptera, Eumenidae)
around in Cells A— B. I soon found the small crack leading from the cells to another burrow. This was separated by only a 3 mm thin wall from the passage of the above cells, and it departed from them by 20 mm only toward the edge of the loess wall. The stopper, sealing up this latter burrow, was also damaged, nor was there a turret, so that the ants were able to penetrate into the passages and Cells A —B, and thus belonged to another nest. There were no other cells in their vicinity in the wall. In the case of also this opened nest, Cell I. seemed to be an old one, while Cells II —III. must have been more recent. The nest of Odynerus Nr. 23., opened on 23 July. The stopper, closing the nest at the base of the 71 mm long turret, lay 18 mm inside the burrow in the loess wall, and it was 10 mm thick. The burrow was arched on the other side of the stopper (fig. 9). Cell I. began 50 mm away from the edge of the loess wall, and also at a great distance from the wall of the burrow, beyond a 11 mm deep stopper. It contained the heads of 5 sawfly larvae and a grown-up, fresh Odynerus larve which developed on 14 October into a wholly arched yellow larve, with its head nestling against its abdominal side. The stopper of Cell II. was only 3 mm thick, and so the cell was nearer to the burrow. It enclosed the heads of 5 sawfly larvae and a fresh Odynerus larve. Unfortunately, it went mouldy till 30 July. Cell III. held the heads of 6 sawfly larvae and one Odynerus larve. I placed in this cell a narcotized sawfly larve on 30 July. The wasp larve desiccated till 4 October, but the sawfly larve seemed to be fresh, though a bit withered. Cell IV. enclosed 8 sawfly larvae, 2 heads, and a 4 mm long Odynerus larve. This cell was made tight beside the third one, separated from it by a 3 mm wall. On 30 July, I found in it 7 heads, 1 spoilt and brownish sawfly larve and 4 small beetle larvae, aside of the Odynerus larve. On 14 October, the only living thing in the cell was the red larve of Trichodes apiarius, which spinned itself into a thick cocoon from the side of the cotton layer, keeping free of the glass vial. Cell V. contained, apart of the 7 green sawfly larvae, a small larve (Plate V, fig 14—15), which consumed 5 sawfly larvae (the remaining 2 larvae withering to black mummies) till 30 July ; it developed till 14 October into a dull, yellow larve, with its head appressed to its abdominal side. Cell VI. enclosed 3 green sawfly larvae and one egg. I put 5 other sawfly larvae beside it on 30 July. The egg developed into a yellowish-white, silkyshining larve till 14 October ; its head was free, not touching its abdomen. To sum up, the nest type of Odynerus spiricornis Spin, is a „Zweigbeute" (Deiidroecien, Verhoeff 1892) (Plate IV., fig. 13). The entrance of the nest is sealed up by a 10—11 mm stopper, that of the several cells by a thinner one (2—3 mm). The cells lie generally close together, they point downward or are oblique, the last one in the passage proper. The cells begin 5—6 cm deep in the wall. The length of the several cells are 14—15 mm, their depth 8 mm, scarcely narrower at their neck. The wall of the cell is, similarly to those of the burrow, smooth, of a yellowish or greenish shine which do not constitute an independent layer, but will crumble with the walls. The wasp provisions the cells with (an average) 7 sawfly larvae for its own larve. This hatches from the egg in 5 days. The skin of the young larve is shiny, taut, greyish white; the animal lies a bit curved in the cell, almost filling it, its head free (Plate V, fig. 17). Later it turns to yellow, its skin will be dull and loose, its head closely appressed to its abdomen in a strongly curved attitude, and it will shrink to a smaller size (Plate V, fig. 16). However, this process failed to come true for all of the larvae in all of the nests
