THE ENEMIES OF THE GRASSHOPPER 



but found no egg, so that she probably would have 

 brought in a second victim had we let her go. The 

 tunnel ran in obliquely for an inch and a half, the 

 pocket at the end being two inches below the surface. 



A few days later we saw Larra quebecensis, another 

 little grasshopper wasp, with the same red abdomen 

 as tarsata, going to and fro about her nest, occasionally 

 throwing out a little sand. She ran about near by all 

 through the afternoon, but was not in a mood for work. 

 On the next morning at ten o'clock, we found her touch- 

 ing up the nest a little, after which she left it open and 

 flew away. In an hour she came leaping along like 

 Tachytes, holding a small grasshopper in the third legs. 

 This was placed inside the door while she turned around, 

 and was then pulled in. She came out immediately, 

 and in twenty minutes brought a second, and in ten 

 more a third grasshopper, staying within this time for 

 some minutes, after which she closed the nest. We took 

 out the grasshoppers, one of which bore an egg under- 

 neath, in the middle, in front of the first pair of legs. 

 The grasshoppers lived for five, six, and seven days, but 

 the egg did not develop. We once saw a quebecensis 

 that had laid down her grasshopper while she hunted 

 for her nest. She was moving in sinuous lines up and 

 down the face of a cliff, with incredible rapidity ; we 



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