ABILITY OF MUD-DAUBER TO RECOGNIZE OWN PREY 249 



found this damaged cell repaired and the fifth cell still in its 

 half finished condition. This was the first case in my experience 

 of a wasp going back and giving attention to a previously finished 

 cell after a subsequent one had been begun. 



CONCLUSIONS 



When we attempt, finally, to formulate any generalizations 

 concerning the behavior or psychology of these insects, there 

 seems to be only one principle which can be relied upon to hold 

 good in all cases, viz. : that the madam will do as she pleases. 

 Cases of similar conduct under homologous circumstances 

 can hardly be found. Yet we cannot regard the behavior of 

 the wasp as indifferent or accidental when we see her very 

 positive air in taking action, and her usual determination and 

 persistence in pursuing it when she has decided upon her course 

 of action. It may seem to some readers that these observations 

 are too artificial or experimental in nature and too limited in 

 number to justify a conclusion so vague. To be sure all these 

 experiments threw the insects under abnormal and unnatural 

 conditions, so we need not marvel, perhaps, that no two behaved 

 alike under provocation. But the detailed examination of 

 many hundreds of completed nests 2 shows that in normal, free 

 life these wasps commit blunders or follow disastrous whims 

 in a large proportion of their cells; sealing them stark empty 

 or with only a fraction of the food necessary for the young 

 one, or providing abundant supplies and omitting the egg, or 

 other blunders which would defeat the whole purpose of the 

 wonderful instinct of nest-building. 



In answer to the question suggested in the title we can only 

 say that in most of the cases where the spiders were disturbed 

 the owner was quick to detect it and frequently resented it. 

 But since in her anger she often threw away part or all of her 

 own prey we cannot determine whether or not she recognized 

 her own, or merely regarded with alarm any meddling about 

 her home. Likewise in those cases wherein she accepted our 

 proffered aid she did so with such outward indifference, taking 

 it all as a matter-of-course after the manner of those accus- 

 tomed to welcoming charity, that we could not discern whether 

 or not she was the wiser. 



2 The data are in course of preparation for publication later. 



