WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



uals. Once having seen a wasp dig her nest and close it 

 up, we drew some radiating lines from the spot, in the 

 light dust that covered the place, that we might find it 

 again. When we returned, two hours later, the same 

 wasp had made a nest four or five inches distant from the 

 first one, and had left it wide open, while she had gone 

 off to search for her caterpillar. She had probably been 

 alarmed by the marks that we had made, and had felt 

 it necessary to dig a new nest, but being in a hurry to 

 lay her egg had omitted the usual process of closing it. 

 We witnessed the storing of the caterpillar and the final 

 closing. 



From Fabre we learn that argentata and sabulosa 

 close the nest as soon as it has been made, at least when 

 the provisioning is to be postponed until the next day, 

 while holosericea leaves it open until it is completely 

 stored. He suggests an explanation for this variation 

 by dwelling upon the inconvenience that would result if 

 it were opened every time that the wasp brought in a 

 caterpillar, since holosericea stores up five or six small 

 larvae instead of one or two large ones. But what, then, 

 shall be said of polita and yarrowii, which, while they 

 also store a number of small caterpillars, take pains to 

 close and conceal the entrance every time they come 

 out? We see the same habit in other genera where the 



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