140 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



was not well adapted to getting across the onion field, and a 

 wasp looked very absurd trying to go backward up tlie slippery 

 stalks for five minutes at a time without making the slightest 

 advance. In other cases she kept patiently to her feet until 

 she came to a plant that was not only easy to climb, but high 

 enough to give her a real advantage. 



In taking the spider to its final resting place, biguttatus drops 

 it once or twice by the wayside w^hile she inspects the nest and 

 perhaps adds a few finishing touches. At the last she backs in, 

 dragging it after her. 



An egg that we took from a nest just after it was laid, was 

 fastened to the spider on the right side of the abdomen. It 

 hatched at the end of forty hours, and had a healthy larval life 

 of eight days, spinning its cocoon on July twentieth. On the 

 fifteenth of August we found that it had flown. 



Of three spiders stung by higuitatns, one was dead when 

 taken from the wasp. The second, taken on July sixth, seemed 

 to be quite dead until the eighth, when it gave a slight response 

 to stimulation. From this lime it improved, at first slowly and 

 then rapidly, until on July fifteenth it drank water and moved 

 all its legs without stimulation. On the eighteenth it began to 

 walk, and by the sixth of September it had entirely; regained its. 

 health and was released. The third spider, which was taken 

 with the egg upon it, lived until it was destroyed by the lar\'a. 



PompUus fuscipenuis St. Fargeau. 



PI. I., fig. 2; PI. XII., fig. 5. 



This species, which is a little smaller than P. qii'unjurnofaus, 

 is black, ^vith the red pirdle that appears so frequently among 

 the solitary wasps. The first time that we ever saw this wasp 

 she was nmning rapidly backward over the bare ground, the 

 brilliant red of her body flashing in the sunlight as she dragged 

 along a little spider of the genus ThonnsKS. Presently she 

 carried it up on to a leaf and began to bite at it, but being dis- 

 turbed by an ant, hurried on with a much agitated manner. 



