SEVERAL LITTLE WASPS 



we could not see distinctly, darted into one of them. It 

 was gone so quickly that we could not be sure that it 

 was the species we were looking for, and when it re- 

 appeared, after two or three minutes, we saw that it was 

 not. This point being determined, we watched the hole 

 with redoubled interest. 



It was wearisome work, for the wasp stayed away a 

 long time, and we dared not let our gaze wander lest she 

 should slip in without our knowledge. At the end of 

 thirty-five minutes she returned, but again we failed 

 to see what she carried. She flew with great rapidity, 

 and we scarcely caught sight of her before she vanished 

 into her nest. We could not but wonder at the ease and 

 certainty with which she recognized her own doorway 

 among the hundreds of holes on the side of the stump. 

 This power of localization, while it is one of the most 

 common among wasps, is surely also one of the most 

 remarkable. 



Our little Rhopalum pedicellatum, for that proved to 

 be her name, made six more journeys within the next 

 two hours. At the end of this time we opened the tunnel, 

 and, after a great deal of sawing and cutting, succeeded 

 in finding the nest five inches from the surface. It was 

 nothing but a slight enlargement of the gallery, in the 

 soft decaying wood. In it we found thirty-three gray 



73 



