WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



so far as we have seen, with any success, the male in 

 charge being always quite ready and able to take care 

 of his rights. The males, however, made no objection 

 when strange females entered the nest, as they sometimes 

 did by mistake, nor did the females object to the en- 

 trance of a strange male when the one belonging to the 

 nest happened to be away ; but in such cases the rightful 

 owner, on his return, quickly ejected the intruder. We 

 often amused ourselves, while we were watching the 

 nests, by approaching the little male, as he stood in his 

 doorway, with a blade of grass. He always attacked it 

 valiantly, and sometimes grasped it so tightly in his 

 mandibles that he could be drawn out of the nest with it. 



When the female returns to the nest with a spider the 

 male flies out to make way for her, and then as she goes in 

 he alights on her back and enters with her. When she 

 comes out again she brings him with her, but he at once 

 reenters, and then, after a moment, comes out and backs 

 in, so that he faces outward as before. 



In one instance, with rubrocinctum, where the work 

 of storing the nest had been delayed by rainy weather, 

 we saw the male assisting by taking the spiders from 

 the female as she brought them and packing them into 

 the nest, leaving her free to hunt for more. This was an 

 especially attentive little fellow, as he guarded the nest 



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