WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



the wasp returned it was hanging there as motionless 

 as a piece of dead matter. How she knew the difference 

 was a mystery, but she would not touch it. She seemed 

 to think that she had made a mistake in the locality 

 and that her own spider must be hanging somewhere 

 close by, for she hunted all over that plant and then 

 over several others near to it, returning continually to 

 look again in the right spot. After five minutes she gave 

 it up, circled about three or four times, and flew off in 

 the direction of the woods to catch another spider. 



Why did she go to the woods? When she realized 

 that the strix she had stung was gone and that she must 

 have another, why did she not take the one that hung 

 there in plain view? Our failure could not have been 

 due to the fact that we had handled the spider, since, 

 when on other occasions we took one that had been 

 paralyzed, examined it and then returned it to the wasp, 

 she accepted it without hesitation. 



Disappointed though we were at the irrational con- 

 duct of our wasp, we resolved to await her return and 

 to try again. In forty minutes she came back with an- 

 other spider, but instead of taking it into the nest she 

 hung it upon a bean plant near by and then proceeded 

 to dig a new hole a few inches distant from the first. 

 Foolish little wasp, what a waste of labor ! Truly, if 



208 



