Judging only by instincts and habits, a characteristic superior to all others, we must rank not far below the builder whose nest we have been considering certain other Wasps of our country-side, Spider-hunters like the first and, like her, worthy, or perhaps even more worthy, of the title of Πηλοποιός, a worker in clay or mud, a potter. My district possesses two of these ceramic artists: Agenia punctum, Panz., and A. hyalipennis, Zetterstedt. With all their talent they are very frail creatures, clad in black and hardly larger than the ordinary Gnat. Their pottery amazes us when we remember the feebleness of the artisan. It surprises us even more by its regularity, which may be compared with the product of the turning-lathe. Adhering broadly to a flat base and leaning one against the other, the Pelopæus’ cells, in the full elegance of the first phase, are merely semicylinders whose circular contour is accentuated only at the mouth; while those of the Ageniæ, which are almost isolated from one another and take hold of their support only at a restricted spot, retain from end to end a regular convexity, suggesting the tiny pots of a miniature set of crockery. If any one deserves the epithet of spirifex, or turner, it is the Agenia rather than the Pelopæus. No other manipulator of potter’s clay possesses her dexterity. The pots of A. punctum are shaped like oval jars, each smaller than a cherry-stone. Those of A. hyalipennis affect a conoid form, narrow at the base and wider at the mouth, like the primitive drinking-cup, the cyathus of the ancients. Both have a polished interior and a very much granulated exterior, the maker allowing the little mouthful of mortar which she has brought to project outside, without seeking to level it, as she does so carefully upon the inner wall. These granulations are the equivalent of the slanting fillets left by the Pelopæus. No rough-cast, no plaster is applied to conceal the pretty bit of earthenware; no reinforcement of casing is added. Such as it was when the potter moulded the neck, such it remains after it has received its lid and its little Spider with an egg laid upon her side. The Agenia’s urns then, notwithstanding their brittleness, are left entirely unprotected, whether they be placed end to end in a winding row or grouped in a confused cluster.