56 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



this point she suddenly reversed her operations and began to 

 fill the hole that she had made, kicking in the earth until the 

 entrance was liidden. She then glanced at the spider, selected 

 £1 new place and began to dig again. Surprisingly large pellets 

 of earth were carried out, backward, and loose dirt was kicked 

 under the body by the first legs. At the end of two or three 

 minutes she paused and remained perfectly still for a time. She 

 was considering the situation. Her conclusion was adverse to 

 the locahty for she soon filled in the hole, looked once more at 

 the spider and started a third nest in a new place. This in 

 turn was soon abandoned as was also a fourth. The fifth begin- 

 ning was made under a leaf that lay close to the ground, so that 

 we could not see her at all. We had now watched her for an 

 hour in the intense heat of noonday and most devoutly did we 

 hope that she was suited at last, but no — after twenty minutes' 

 work this place also was abandoned and a sixth nest started. 

 This, however, was the final choice and after forty-five minutes 

 spent in digging it was completed. As the spider was brought 

 toward the nest it was left again and again while the nervous 

 little wasp flew to the hole, went in, examined and came out 

 again. At last she backed in, caught the spider by the ab- 

 domen and dragged it down. It was too big — the head stuck 

 in the hole; but she pulled from below while we pushed gently 

 from above and it slowly disappeared. When she came out we 

 opened the nest and took the spider. The egg was fastened to 

 the middle of the left side of the abdo-men. This one, as was 

 also the case with a second and third afterward taken from 

 fasciatus, was much less affected by the poison than is usual 

 among the victims of soKtary wasps, moving from the time it 

 was taken, without any stimulation, and improving rapidly from 

 day to day. Our second spider appeared to be blind, and died 

 upon the sixteenth day, while the third had entirely recovered 

 by the seventeenth day after it was stung, and was released. 

 Fasoiatus, then, probably depends upon packing her victim in 

 tightly to keep it quiet. 



It was three days and a half before the egg that we had taken 



