68 



ELEMENTARY STUDIES IX INSECT LIFE 



by their very multiplicity, but, singling out different 

 individuals, we were enabled to verify each detail of 

 their operations. An insect, alighting, ran about on 

 the smooth, hard surface till it had found a suitable 

 spot to begin its excavation, which was made about a 

 quarter of an inch in diameter, nearly vertical, and 



FIG. 57. The tarantula-hawk (Pepsi's formosa), 

 one of the giant wasps, which stores its burrows 

 with tarantulas. From a photograph. 



carried to a depth of about four inches, as was shown 

 by opening a number of them. The earth, as removed, 

 was formed into a rounded pellet and carefully carried 

 to the neighboring grass and dropped. For the first 

 half of an inch or so the hole was made of a slightly 

 greater diameter. When the excavation had been car- 

 ried to the required depth, the wasp, after a survey 

 of the premises, flying away, soon returned with a large 

 pebble in its mandibles, which it carefully deposited 

 within the opening; then, standing over the entrance 

 upon her four posterior feet, she (I say she, for it was 

 evident that they were all females) rapidly and most 

 amusingly scraped the dust with her two front feet, 

 ' hand over hand,' back beneath her, till she had filled 



