50 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



undergrowth being kept cleared out, so that outside of a few specimens of 

 Carabida? I got nothing there for my pains. 



A little further on beneath a very old log my patience was rewarded by 

 three specimens of Lucamis cervus var. capra — the variety with the short mandi- 

 tles in the male. I later took the typical form, L. cervus Linne flying at dusk 

 in the outskirts of Paris. Both of these latter I took at the same place exactly, 

 the female one evening and the male the following evening. Both were on 

 the wing, and I was attracted by their buzzing flight. 



But to continue my history of this my first day in a new field, I proceeded 

 on until mid-afternoon finding many old friends in a live condition more in- 

 teresting than they had been in my collection. Everywhere on the deciduous 

 trees were to be found swarms of Melolontha vulgaris and an unknown little 

 Aveevil which also defoliated. I was just putting a pair of Clivinia fossor Linne 

 into my vial when I noticed that the sun was low, and as I had to be on duty 

 again at seven that evening it behooved me to hurry a little and return. 



Thus closed my first experience in a strange land, and how I gloated over 

 them when I packed them away that evening. 



A REMARKABLE CASE OF HOMING INSTINCT. (HYMEN.)* 



BY C. N. AINSLIE, 

 Bureau of Entomology, Sioux City, Iowa. 



August 31, 1919. was hot, dry, dusty and windy in Mandan, North Dakota, 

 where the writer w^as spending the day. The wind was from the west, gusty, 

 and at times almost reached the velocity of a gale. 



Late in the afternoon as the writer was returning from a stroll, a flash o- 

 green from the grass beside the walk attracted his attention. A brief investi- 

 gation disclosed the fact that a lady Sphex (or Ammophila)* had secured a 

 green lepidopterous larva more bulky than herself and was trundling along 

 Avith her prey swung beneath her body, one end of the larva being held in a 

 firm grip by her jaws, the other supported in some manner by her legs. Its 

 weight was clearly greater than that of the wasp herself, but she was evidently 

 fresh and moved quite briskly at first. 



She came out almost at once upon the cement walk that was being swept 

 by the wind. When she felt its force she adopted the policy of least resistance 

 and drifted before it for at least twenty feet eastward, running, walking and 

 hopping in an eftortto maintain her balance. For the time she was helpless. 

 Finally she hove to and headed directly into the wind, going due west. Her 

 progress was of course slow, but she persisted and managed to struggle along 

 for a distance of about fifty feet, with occasional pauses tor rest. 



During this journey her prey must have shown signs of returning animatioii 

 for at one point she stopped, adjusted her burden and, arching her slender 

 waist, aimed her ridiculous little bulb of an abdomen directly downward. A 

 few swift stings reduced her helpless \ ictim to absolute submission, and during 

 the remainder of the performance she had no more trouble of this sort. 



After moving nearly fifty feet directly into the wind she seemed to realize 



*Published with the permission of the Secretary of .Agriculture. 

 *Determined by Dr. H. T. Fernald, of .Amherst, Mass., as Sphex vulgaris. 

 March, 1920 



