94 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



wliich reads as follows: 2:42 o'clock, 3:03, 3:10, 3:18, 3:25, 

 5:30, 3:46, 4:00, 4:08, 4:15. 



At fifteen minutes after four the wasp thought that she had 

 worked long enough and as we were beginning to have something 

 of the same idea it was a relief to find that having closed her 

 -door behind her she had gone to bed, or at least had decided to 

 pass the evening at home. After awaiting for some time to 

 see if she would reappear we placed a blade of grass over the 

 nest, and covering all with an inverted tumbler, bade her good 

 night. 



At half past seven o'clock on the following morning we vis- 

 ited the garden to see if our little wasp was yet awake, but the 

 blade of grass had not been disturbed. On a second visit, at 

 nine o'clock, we found her flying about inside the tumbler and 

 at once released her. She flew off and was gone for an hour 

 and when she returned, bringing nothing with her, she circled 

 about for a short time and then again departed without entering 

 the hole. Ten minutes later she came back, still empty-handed, 

 went into the nest, and pushed up such a quantity of earth from 

 below as to make quite a high mound in place of the opening. 

 When she came out again this accumulation of earth spread 

 itself out on all sides. She now began to enlarge her nest, car- 

 rying out the dirt in little pellets, but this fit of industry only 

 lasted for six minutes. A contemplative mood overtook her. 

 She certainly felt no pressure of necessity, being quite contented 

 to rest on a neighboring weed and meditate, varying the mo- 

 notony by occasionally circling about her nest. It was two 

 o'clock in the afternoon before she resumed her hunting expe- 

 ditions. 



This was our first acquaintance with Astata hlcolor. A late 

 arrival on the scene, it soon became a common species and be- 

 tween this time and the first of September scarcely a day passed 

 without our seeing it. We never witnessed the making of the 

 nest from the beginning but probably the earlier as well as the 

 later part of the work is done with the mandibles, unaided by 

 the legs. Supposing the excavation to be begun about ten 



