S OME OB A VE DIGGERS. 1 1 1 



rose on her "wings, and after a little more circling, dropped sud- 

 denly into her hole. 



So far we had not been getting on very rapidly but from this 

 time things took a turn. Cerceris is never in a hurry and yet 

 she may be relied upon to do a certain amount of work every 

 day. The one that we were now watching had probably come 

 back for a final look at her newly made nest before beginning to 

 provision it, for she soon reappeared and this time really went 

 to work since in forty minutes she brought home a beetle (Bal- 

 aninus naswiis Say.), which she carried by the snout, venter up, 

 in her mandibles, supporting it while flying with the second pair 

 of legs. She was much annoyed at our presence and circled 

 about as before. Twice she alighted near by and walked about 

 for a few minutes, and when she did tliis all her feet came down 

 to the ground, the beetle being allowed to hang loosely. At 

 last she made the best of a bad matter and went in. The rest 

 of the morning was occupied with hunting, the captr.re of each 

 beetle taking about forty-five minutes. Every time that she 

 came home she spent fifteen or twenty minutes in the nest. 



This species soon became very common and for two weeks 

 scarcely a morning passed without our finding at least one newly 

 made nest. The study of clypeata, however, consumes a great 

 deal of time. For example we found, one morning, two nests 

 within six inches of ^ach other. It turned out afterw^ard that 

 these were inhabited by two different wasps, but at the moment 

 we supposed that one of them had been dug and deserted and 

 then a second one made, and wishing to know which one was 

 occupied Ave resolved to watch and see. After waiting for 

 three hours we saw one wasp returning but upon noticing us 

 she veered off and began to circle about. She was heavily laden 

 and her burden, instead of being supported by the second pair 

 of legs, as is sometimes the case, hung down under the thorax 

 and abdomen. After a moment she alighted on a plant near by 

 and seemed to consider the situation, then circled a little more 

 and flew away, remaining out of sight for fifteen minutes, then 



