WILLIAMS: LARRID^ OF KANSAS. 191 



avail, for it was soon rendered helpless by a sting under the 

 thorax. It was malaxated on the ventral side of the neck, as 

 in the first instance, and carried venter down. The wasp 

 made little runs and short flying jumps from grass blades with 

 her burden, and though very near her burrow, took consid- 

 erable time in locating the same, which she entered at 9 :40. 

 Five minutes later she came out, and after a short pause took 

 w^ing, but returned unnoticed. At 10:08 she was very busy 

 filling up her tunnel, working rapidly, gathering little lumps 

 of earth and other material, such as twigs, thorns, and Orthop- 

 tera excrement. This material, though varied in character, 

 was selected with some care, and at first brought in from 

 some little distance. Her first trips averaged a little more than 

 two per minute; her final ones (which were made mostly on 

 the wing), from six to seven per minute. Shen then remained 

 inside for a little more than twenty minutes. As the burrow 

 became filled her trips for material were more hurried and 

 shorter, and instead of picking up loose earth she would fre- 

 quently bite off' a piece, for a time, from two separate places 

 a few inches away. At 11 :18 her burrow was so shallow that 

 when she entered she could be seen within depositing her load, 

 occasionally emitting a squeaky little buzz. She seemed to 

 become rather excited as her work neared completion, being 

 then somewhat easily frightened, and at a movement from 

 the observer would turn about and regard him doubtfully, 

 as it were. She frequently carried lumps of earth of at least 

 her own weight. None of this material is tamped down, but 

 lightly placed at the bottom of the tunnel. The Ammophilas 

 and Isodontias among the Sphecidse, and many of the larrids, 

 pack the soil, at least when their burrows are nearly filled. At 

 11:35 A. M. Notogonia, having finished the work of filling the 

 burrow and disguising the site, flew away. The location of 

 the tunnel was thus fairly well hidden, largely by excrement ; 

 in addition there were a few twigs and some soil. Its diameter 

 at the entrance was one-half inch high by nine-sixteenths of an 

 inch wide. The earth packing extended only for an inch or two 

 below the surface. The shaft, at first subhorizontal and 

 widened in an irregular manner, soon narrowed and sloped 

 quite steeply. I soon lost the main tunnel, but upon digging 

 deeper found three neat shafts, each terminating in a rounded 

 tell. The first of the latter was at a depth of about five inches 



