THE ENEMIES OF THE ORTHOPTERA. 167 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE ENEMIES OF THE ORTHOPTERA. 



Tachytes sp.'i 

 Plate XL, fig. 5. 



Early in September this little black wasp suddenly became 

 very common in the garden. The first one that we saw was 

 going forwards in a series of long jumps, carrying a small grass- 

 hopper which was held by the base of the antennae. She soon 

 doubled on her tracks and it became evident that she did not 

 know her way, but after going around in circles for two minutes 

 she ran into her nest. When she came out she spent a long 

 time in circling around, flying close to the ground in wavy, 

 snaky lines, occasionally alighting to run a few steps, but in 

 spite of this locality study, ten minutes later, when she came 

 jumping along with her second grasshopper she had lost her 

 nest again and hunted about just asl before, twice going directly 

 over it -s^-ithout seeing it. While she was thus! occupied another 

 wasp of the same species attacked her and tried to get possession 

 of the grasshopper, but the rightful owner was able to defend 

 it. At last it was stored away and she proceeded to fill the 

 nest, scratching the earth in with her first legs and working it 

 down with the tip of the abdomen. She worked quietly but 

 steadily for ten minutes, closing the place neatly, and then 

 brought bits of leaf and pieces of earth to cover it all over. 



On the same afternoon we saw another of theses wasps dig- 

 ging her nest, but she was so much disturbed when we came 

 anywhere near her that we were obliged to retire. On the next 

 day we saw her astride of a small grasshopper jumping along 

 like the one of the day before. She too had great trouble in 

 finding her way. When she reached the nest she laid her prey 



