356 CARL HARTMAN 



Our wasp No. II secured mud from a spot of some fifteen 

 square inches in area in a well-beaten path at the near edge 

 of the garden some twenty feet away. Only every fourth or 

 fifth trip was taken out of sight beyond the garden more than 

 one hundred and fifty feet distant. Presumably it went for a 

 drink of water on these longer trips, for it invariably returned 

 with a pellet of mud without stopping at the nearer spot. Each 

 long trip was followed by three or four short ones to the nearby 

 quarrying place in the pathway of the garden. An inspection 

 of the table above shows that the wasp returned on the trips 

 Nos. 6, 9, ii, 15, 18 and 23 after an absence of nine to fourteen 

 minutes. These trips were made beyond the garden ; the other 

 trips, consuming less time, were made only to the nearer source 

 of supplies. Twenty loads were secured from the spot just 

 inside the garden leaving twenty small pits that could easily 

 be counted after the wasp had completed its task. The longer 

 time required for the wasp to return to the nest on the first 

 five trips might be ascribed to the unfamiliarity with the way 

 in and out among the objects in the approach to the nest. 



It was commendable economy for the wasp to select a reason- 

 ably close spot for quarrying between drinks. It is, however, 

 not complimentary either to the wasp 's intelligence or to • its 

 power of adaptation that she flew many yards to secure water 

 when there was a puddle within a few feet, which was, indeed, 

 not disdained by wasp No. I. The latter economized effort in 

 that it had water, dirt and the nesting place within the radius 

 of three feet. It is, of course, possible that wasp No. II on 

 this occasion simply returned for water to the same place whence 

 it had secured water for nests previously built. 



It is worthy of note that wasp No. I secured all the dirt to 

 build its nest from a single clod of clay, and that twenty-four 

 hours later (!), when ready to close the nest with a mud plug, 

 it drank deeply of water and flew back to the same clod of dirt, 

 whence came the rest of the building material, and secured 

 there the last bit of mud needed to make its offspring safe. 

 The "memory" of the situation of the clod of clay persisted, 

 therefore, for a night and a day, although the daytime inter- 

 vening was filled with such strenuous activities as the capture, 

 stinging, and storing of a score of caterpillars, not to speak of 

 the laying of the egg. 



