246 PHIL RAU 



believed that her nest was lost, and that the one to which she 

 came again and again was the nest of another which had been 

 filled with spiders. 



Exp. 14. At 10:20 a new cell, the fifth on this nest, was 

 commenced, and in just one hour and a half the new compart- 

 ment was completed and ready to be filled and sealed. At 

 this point I came forward with unasked aid and placed therein 

 fourteen spiders from another nest. The wasp returned with 

 a load of mud, no doubt to put on the finishing ring, but when 

 she saw the spiders she showed not the least surprise or con- 

 cern, but proceeded to seal the cell with the pellet she had 

 brought. Then she brought another and another and added 

 it to the closing in the normal manner, showing almost human 

 standards of conduct in being satisfied in doing the thing most 

 convenient at hand which gives the appearance of work well 

 done, and glad of the opportunity easily to forget that she had 

 quite overlooked the principal duty of her life. She seemed 

 to give no serious thought to the presence of the spiders, nor 

 did she make an effort to compress them nor show any concern 

 for depositing her egg. The sight or scent of the spiders seemed 

 to afford sufficient stimulus to cause her to seal the cell. Per- 

 haps the presence of the mud already in her mandibles lent 

 strength to the stimulus for this particular action. 



At four o'clock that afternoon I found that this industrious 

 mother had made another cell and was finishing off what I 

 thought must be the last ring. When she flew out I placed six 

 spiders in the cell and had not time to insert more when she 

 returned with another load of mud. She got a glimpse of the 

 spiders, which in this case only half filled the cell, and almost 

 immediately flew out with the pellet. She threw away her 

 mud and came hurrying back, peered into the cell and then 

 bustled out again. She came back to the cell bent on her course 

 of action, got a spider and carried it out. I then hurried to com- 

 pletely fill the cell by adding ten more spiders. But her zeal 

 for righting wrongs was now aroused, and even this was no in- 

 ducement to seal it up, for she carried them all out one by one. 



Exp. 15. The new cell on this nest was just completed but 

 as yet contained no food supplies, so I placed in it eight fresh 

 spiders taken from another nest. The mother wasp returned 

 with a load of mud and alighted on the nest, but from her be- 



