Vol. XXIV] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 395 



we shall see the behavior of this very same wasp toward 

 spiders removed from one of her own cells which had been 

 sealed and placed in the cell now in the making. In the first 

 experiment the borrowed spiders had been captured and handled 

 by some other wasp. In this case they were taken by this very 

 individual the day before and placed in a cell of the same 

 nest. Will she carry these out as she did the others, or will 

 she recognize them as her own brand? 



The wasp returned, examined the inside and outside of the 

 cell and nest for a half minute and then flew away, returning 

 very soon with a spider which she tucked into the cell with 

 the others without removing any of them, and with her head 

 crowded and packed them into a compact mass. Soon it came 

 with another spider, and while struggling to push it in it ex- 

 amined the entire nest carefully. 



Since she did not remove her own spiders borrowed from 

 yesterday's gathering, another attempt was made on this wasp 

 to introduce spiders from another's nest. I removed the last 

 one which she had brought in and substituted three others. 

 This cell was now full to overflowing, twelve spiders from 

 another cell of her own nest, three which she had captured 

 for this particular cell, and three foreigners. She returned 

 with another which she tried to cram in, but it fell to the floor. 

 She then condensed the overflow by pounding and pushing 

 them in with her head for exactly three minutes. She then 

 soared out of the window and returned almost immediately 

 with a pellet of mud which she spread over the entrance of the 

 cell, and then another and another. If the insects are mere 

 automata, as some writers would have us believe, why did 

 not this one continue to bring in the spiders and try to crowd 

 them into the cell until the usual quantity was reached? On 

 the contrary, finding her cell full, she immediately packed 

 it well and sealed it. 



The item of interest is that the first time she removed the 

 foreigners; then she left undisturbed the spiders of her 

 own stinging, but from another cell ; but on the third intrusion, 

 when impostors were again introduced, she left them too un- 



