CORRESPONDENCE CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 101, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2011 1517 tributed their ‘best’ research between foreign and Indian journals in 2000 and 2005 in percentages that ranged from 100 (Cochin Univ. Sci. & Technol. in 2005) to 88 (ICMR in 2000). That is, only a few premier agricultural and medical institutions have sent a noticeable per- centage (not more than 11) of their best work to Indian journals. Table 2 shows the major publishers favoured by Indian authors for publishing their best work. Nearly half appears in the journals of one single publisher, namely Elsevier. Only 0.64% appears in journals produced by Indian publishers which are indexed in the Web of Knowledge. In 2005, ICMR journals accounted for slightly more than 60%, CSIR journals for nearly another 20%, and the Indian Academy of Sci- ences journals for approximately 5% of this meagre 0.64% share. 1. Nishy, P., Parvatharajan, P. and Prathap, G., Curr. Sci., 2011, 100(11), 1604. 2. Prathap, G., Scientometrics, 2011, 87(3), 515–524. π P. NISHY GANGAN PRATHAP* CSIR National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources, New Delhi 110 012, India e-mail: gp@niscair.res.in Observations on the spider cache of mud-dauber Sceliphron sp. nest It is well known that mud-dauber wasps Sceliphron spp. (family Sphecidae) para- lyse spiders and store them in their nests as food provision for their offspring. The species differ in their number of cells in a nest, the number of spiders provisioned in a cell, and the number and preference of spider species collected for provision- ing 1 . On 2 July 2011, we observed six spi- ders that appeared paralysed being car- ried away by ants on the kitchen floor of an apartment. The source of these spiders was a mud-dauber wasp (Sceliphron sp.) constructing a nest on the central ceiling fixture (Figure 1 a). The identity of the wasp species could not be ascertained, as it was not collected. All the six spiders belonged to the family Araneidae (Figure 1 b). Over the next few days, the wasp completed its nest and all the cells were Figure 1. a, Sceliphron sp. building a nest. b, Spiders discarded by Sceliphron sp. while building the nest. sealed. In all, there appeared to be five cylindrical cells. In the second week of September, some of the cells were open indicating emergence of adult wasps. On 14 Sep- tember, the nest was removed and a few spiders spilled out. The nest was col- lected on a sheet of paper and the con- tents were sorted. Two empty cocoons were found, indicating that at least two adult wasps had emerged. Since the nest was damaged while removing, the state of other cells could not be ascertained. In one of the cells, however, a small, live larva was also present. Perhaps, it did not develop properly. In addition, a surprisingly large num- ber of spiders was stashed inside. The nest was disturbed carefully and all the spiders were separated from the hardened mud. Further, the entire mud was dis- solved in water so that any remaining spiders could float. Since the cells were disturbed, we could not keep a cell-by- Figure 2. Sorted contents of the Sceliphron sp. nest: (a) Cocoons of the emerged wasps; (b) Live, undeveloped larva; (c) Exoskeleton of a spider; (d) Theridid spiders; (e) Uloborid spiders. cell count of the spiders. The entire nest contained 104 spiders (Figure 2). Of these, 92 spiders belonged to a certain species of Uloboridae, 9 to a species of Therididae, 1 individual of Araneidae (Neoscona nautica) and 2 others which could not be identified as they were damaged. Interestingly, one spider exoskeleton was also found. Is it possible for a para- lysed spider to recover and moult inside a nest? It has been speculated that the spider was about to moult when it was captured by the wasp and ultimately it moulted inside the nest (G. N. Vankhede, pers. commun.). But there is evidence that the wasp venom acts on the spider as a tranquilizer only and its effect subsides with time 2 . The initial observation showed that wasps may discard some spiders even after capturing them and bringing them to the nest. But why would a wasp invest energy in capturing, paralysing and carrying the spiders only to discard them ultimately? That too when later observa- tions suggested that wasps specialized on a particular spider to a great extent? Still more curiously, why do the discarded spiders belong to a particular family? Since the wasp larvae consume all the edible parts of a spider 3 , it could be speculated that the 92 intact individuals of Uloboridae were stored for the single undeveloped larva. By extrapolation, the wasp might have stored at least 270 indi- viduals of this spider inside the nest for its entire brood of at least three larvae. The tendency of the wasps to collect individuals of a particular spider species is clearly established 1,4 . It is even clear that wasps use cuticular chemical cues to