ELEMENTAKY STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE 



The actions of the parent in capturing this prey and 

 placing it in a position in the nest as food awaiting 

 the hatching of the egg, are among the most interesting 

 observations to be made in the study of animal life. A 

 number of remarkable instances have been recorded. 

 One which will serve the purpose here, and which goes 

 even farther in showing the use of tools among insects, 

 was observed by Dr. S. W. Williston, of the University 

 of Kansas, and is here given in his own language : 



" Even the casual observer, to whom all insects are 

 bugs, cannot help but be struck by the great diversity 

 and number of the fossorial llymenoptera of the plains. 

 Water is often inaccessible, trees there are few or none, 

 and only in places is the vegetation at all abundant. 

 A much larger proportion of insects, hence, find it 

 necessary to live or breed in holes in the ground, than 

 is the case in more favored localities. Especially is 

 this the case with the Hymenoptera, great numbers and 

 many species of which thus breed in excavations made 

 by themselves. 



" While packing specimens on an open space, uncov- 

 ered by buffalo-grass, in the extreme western part of 

 Kansas, the early part of last July, the attention of a 

 friend and myself was attracted by the numerous 

 wasps that were constantly alighting upon the ground. 

 The hard, smooth, baked surface showed no indications 

 of disturbance, and it was not till we had attentively 

 watched the insects that we learned what they were 

 doing. The wasp is a very slender one, more than an 

 inch in length, with a slender, pedicellate abdomen; 

 it is known to entomologists as Ammophila Yarrowi 

 Ores. They were so numerous that one was distracted 



