100 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



hard-trodden soil, alighting without previous reconnoitering. She stood 

 perfectly motionless, not even dressing herself after the manner of her kind 

 when idle. Presently an ant hurried by, busy about nothing, as usual, 

 when instantly the wasp gave chase. The ant dodged and doubled as it 

 fled, but the wasp overtook and seized it after a very brief and intensely 

 active resistance, for a Pogonomyrmex is by no means a helpless infant in 

 a skirmish. The wasp and its still riotous victim rose heavily into the air 

 and ascended at a sharp angle of flight, until they were lost in the blue of 

 the sky. During the next few minutes I saw the same performance 

 repeated again and again, with variations, until dozens of the ants had 

 disappeared heavenward with the predatory wasps. 



So intent were the wasps on their work that they seemed not in the 

 least disturbed by my presence, and I managed to secure a number of 

 both wasps and ants by taking quick advantage of the struggle always 

 incident to the moment of capture. 



Occasionally an ant, when pursued, would dodge around a blade of 

 grass or rush beneath some welcome shelter and elude its hunter, but this 

 happened in only a few cases. So swift and certain were the motions of 

 the wasps that even with a vantage of six inches or more an ant once fol- 

 lowed was almost certainly doomed. The wasps never, so far as I observed, 

 assisted themselves with their wings to gain speed, but played fair with 

 their victims and ran them down. The struggle generally lasted a second 

 or two on the ground, and, as I have said, appeared to be continued fiercely 

 in the air, judging from the frenzied actions of the two as they rose aloft. 



It was clearly useless to attempt to locate the nest of the wasps, and I 

 contented myself with observing the manner of capture. Some day some 

 one will be at the nest when the ants are brought in, and the rest of the 

 story will then be available. 



Mr. J. C. Crawford, of the National Museum, has kindly determined 

 the predatory wasp as AphilantJiops taurulus, Ckll. Another species 

 taken at the same time and under the same conditions is possibly an 

 undescribed form of the same genus. The ants, the victims of the assault, 

 have been identified by Dr. \Y. H. Wheeler as Pogonomyrmex barbatus, 

 F. Smith, subsp. rt/gostis, Emery. 



I learn that several wasps of a genus nearly allied to Apki/ant/iops 

 are preserved in the National Museum with ants pinned with them. This 

 would argue in favour of a habit similar to the one recorded above, but no 

 notes accompany these specimens referred to. 



