The nervuration of _Trypoxylon_ is very peculiar, and differs from that of the widely-distributed genus _Pison_, though according to Kohl's views the two may be correctly associated to form this sub-family. The species of _Trypoxylon_ are apparently rather fond of human propinquity, and build clay- or mud-nests in or near houses. _T. albitarse_ has this habit, and is well known in Southern Brazil under the name of "_Marimbouda da casa_"; {119}this Insect, like _Pelopaeus_, stores its nest with spiders, and Peckholt has remarked that however great may be the number of spiders placed by the mother-wasp in a cell, they are all consumed by the larva, none ever being found in the cell after the perfect Insect escapes therefrom. The European _T. figulus_ forms a nest either in bramble-stems or in sandy soil or walls; it makes use of spiders as provisions. SUB-FAM. 5. ASTATIDES.—_Eyes very large in the male, meeting broadly on the vertex; two spurs on the middle tibia._ [Illustration: Fig. 46—_Astata boops_, male. Britain.] We have two species of the genus _Astata_ in Britain: one of them—_A. boops_—is known to form burrows in the ground, each of which contains only a single cell; this, it appears, is usually provisioned with bugs of the genus _Pentatoma_, Insects remarkable for their strong and offensive odour. St. Fargeau records that this species also makes use of a small cockroach for forming the food-store: thus exhibiting an unique catholicity in the toleration of the disagreeable; almost the only point of connection between bugs and cockroaches being their disagreeable character. According to Smith, _Oxybelus_, another genus of Fossores, is also used. Authorities are far from agreement as to the validity and relations of the sub-family Astatides. It consists only of the widely-distributed genus _Astata_, with which the North American _Diploplectron_ (with one species) is doubtfully associated. SUB-FAM. 6. BEMBECIDES.—_Labrum frequently elongate; wing-nervures extending very near to the outer margin; marginal cell of front wing not appendiculate; mandibles not emarginate externally; hind body stout, not pedicellate._ The elongation of the labrum, though one of the most trustworthy of the characters of the Bembecides, cannot be altogether {120}relied on owing to the variation it presents both in this and the allied sub-families. The Bembecides carry their prey to their young tucked underneath their own bodies and hugged to the breast; they affect loose, sandy soils for nidification; make use, in the great majority of the cases where the habits are known, of Diptera for provisions, and give these dead to the young; making repeated visits to supply fresh food to the progeny, which notwithstanding this fact, are distributed in isolated burrows. [Illustration: Fig. 47.—_Bembex rostrata_ ♂. Europe.]