WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



of it, for such actions are rare even among the higher 

 animals; but fortunately our observation does not stand 

 alone, although we supposed this to be the case at the 

 time that it was made. Some weeks later, seeing a note 

 of a similar occurrence by Dr. S. W. Williston, of Kansas 

 University, we wrote to him on the subject. In his reply 

 he said that he had waited for a year before venturing 

 to publish his observation, fearing that so remarkable a 

 statement would not be credited. His account is so in- 

 teresting that we quote it at length. 



Even the casual observer, to whom all insects are bugs, 

 cannot help but be struck by the great diversity and 

 number of the fossorial Hymenoptera 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, uncovered 

 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 



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