WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



legs quite after the manner of the wasp we had seen 

 the year before. Her movements were full of nervous 

 excitement, in marked contrast to those of the previous 

 day. Presently she went to look at her nest, and seemed 

 to be struck with a thought that had already occurred 

 to us - - that it was decidedly too small to hold the 

 spider. Back she went for another survey of her bulky 

 victim, measured it with her eye, without touching it, 

 drew her conclusions, and at once returned to the nest 

 and began to make it larger. We have several times seen 

 wasps enlarge their holes when a trial had demonstrated 

 that the spider would not go in, but this seemed a re- 

 markably intelligent use of the comparative faculty. 

 Her method of work was peculiar. Standing in the tun- 

 nel with her head down and her abdomen curved under, 

 she bit the earth loose with her mandibles and pushed 

 it under her body and beyond the tip of the abdomen. 

 When a little had accumulated she backed out, holding 

 it in this way. 



While she was thus employed the spider was attacked 

 by a very tiny red ant, that could not by any possibility 

 have stirred it. When the wasp caught sight of this 

 insignificant marauder she fell into a fit of wild fury, 

 and bending her abdomen under, seized the ant again 

 and again in her mandibles, and flung it backward 



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