A WASP THAT PROVISIONS ITS NEST WITH QUEEN ANTS 379 



was dragging her along by the antennae and trying to rise with 

 her into the air. 



The queen ants attract the attention of the wasps only during 

 the few hours that intervene between the nuptial flight and the 

 loss of their wings. On several occasions I saw dealated queens 

 crossing the roads near the wasp colonies or even running near 

 their nest entrances without being noticed by the wasps that 

 were flying about. And on one occasion when I confined a 

 dealated subsericea queen in a bottle with an Aphilanthops, the 

 ant was still uninjured more than 24 hours later. It is prob- 

 able, therefore, that the wasp responds only to the visual stim- 

 ulus of the winged queen, which is, of course, very different 

 from that of the same insect with her wings removed. 



The ants are merely stung and paralyzed. The wasp does 

 not mutilate or malaxate her victims, which still move their 

 palpi, legs and antennae either spontaneously or when touched, 

 for several hours or even for a few days after they have been 

 captured and placed in the nest. In the course of a few days 

 and often sooner, however, all signs of movement have ceased, 

 although the insects still have a fresh appearance, with flexible 

 limbs and without any indications of the drying up of the tissues. 



The wasp carries the ant under her body, supporting it by 

 means of her middle and hind legs, while she holds its antennae 

 in her mandibles. Sometimes when she happens to settle for a 

 moment on a slanting leaf-blade and is therefore obliged to 

 stand on her legs, one may see the ant dangle for a moment 

 from her jaws. On reaching the nest she may begin to enlarge 

 the entrance by digging, still holding the ant by its antennae 

 and kicking the earth backward around it with her hind legs. 

 Sometimes she may go directly into the nest without any pre- 

 liminary digging and without dropping her prey. Occasionally, 

 however, she may be seen to drop it just at the entrance, then 

 go into the burrow, turn around and pull the ant in after her 

 by one of its antennae. This method of getting the ant into 

 the nest is sometimes very awkwardly executed. Once I saw 

 a wasp seize her ant by the petiole and with much effort pull 

 it in doubled on itself. While the wasp is taking the ant into 

 the burrow, she may be closely watched by two parasites, a 

 beautiful metallic green Chrysis, or cuckoo-wasp, and a small gray 

 Tachinid fly. I have not seen either of these insects oviposit 



