_Philanthus apivorus_ is one of the best known of the members of this sub-family owing to its habit of using the domestic honey-bee as the food for its offspring. In many respects its habits resemble those of _Cerceris ornata_, except that the _Philanthus_ apparently kills the bee at once, while in the case of the _Cerceris_, the _Halictus_ it entombs does not perish for several days. The honey-bee, when attacked by the _Philanthus_, seems to be almost incapable of defending itself, for it appears to have no power of finding with its sting the weak places in the armour of its assailant. According to Fabre, it has no idea of the _Philanthus_ being the enemy of its race, and associates with its destroyer on amicable terms previous to the attack being made on it. The _Philanthus_ stings the bee on the under-surface of the mentum; afterwards the poor bee is subjected to a violent process of kneading, by which the honey is forced from it, and this the destroyer greedily imbibes. The bee is then carried to the nest of the _Philanthus_. This is a burrow in the ground; it is of unusual depth—about a yard according to Fabre—and at its termination are placed the cells for the reception of the young; in one of these cells the bee is placed, and an egg laid on it: as the food in this case is really dead, not merely in a state of anæsthesia, the _Philanthus_ does not complete the store of food for its larvae all at once, but waits until the latter has consumed its first stock, and then the mother-wasp supplies a fresh store of food. In this case, therefore, as in _Bembex_, the mother really tends the offspring. SUB-FAM. 9. MIMESIDES.—_Small Insects with pedicellate hind body, the pedicel not cylindric; mandibles not excised externally; inner margin of eyes not concave; middle tibia with one spur; wings with two, or three, submarginal cells._ Mimesides is here considered to include the Pemphredonides of some authors. Mimesides proper comprises but few forms, and those known are small Insects. _Psen concolor_ and _P. atratus_ form their nests in hollow stems, and the former provisions its nest with Homopterous Insects of the family Psyllidae. Little {128}information exists as to their habits; but Verhoeff states that the species of _Psen_—like members of the Pemphredoninae—do not form cocoons. The Pemphredonine subdivision includes numerous small and obscure Insects found chiefly in Europe and North America (Fig. 51, _P. lugubris_); they resemble the smaller black species of Crabronides, and are distinguished from them chiefly by the existence of at least two complete, submarginal cells on the anterior wing instead of one. [Illustration: Fig. 50.—_Mimesa bicolor_ ♂. Britain.]