THE BURROWERS 



regard for the convenience of the people who are watch- 

 ing her. You may sit by her big open hole for hours 

 without seeing her, and when she comes she drops in 

 so suddenly that, unless you are very much on your 

 guard, you are not sure even then what she is. Clypeata 

 and deserta are better subjects for study. 



The nests of our species are all deep, tortuous, and 

 very difficult to excavate. We have never succeeded in 

 finding their pockets; 

 and yet, for various 

 reasons, we feel per- 

 fectly certain that all 

 of them are like C. 

 ornata in provisioning, 

 successively, a number 

 of cells which lead out 

 of the main gallery. 



When one of these cells is filled with food, and the egg 

 deposited, it is probably closed up, and thus separated 

 from the runway. From our experience late in the 

 season with the nests of another wasp, we are inclined 

 to think that we made a mistake in looking for pock- 

 ets at the lower end of the tunnel. Had we searched 

 higher up, at the point of the curve, we might have 

 found them, the lower part of the gallery probably being 



143 



CERCERIS CLYPEATA 



