118 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



ing of three brothers arid four sisters, the females, with their 

 bright yellow faces and mandibles, being handsomer than the 

 males. They seemed to be on the most :.micable terms with 

 each other, their only trouble being that while they were all 

 fond of looking out, the doorway was only large enough to hold 

 one at a time. The nest was opened in the morning at about 

 nine o'clock and during the next thirty or forty minutes their 

 comical little faces would appear, one after another, each wasp 

 enjoying the view for a few minutes with many twitchings of 

 the head, and then retreating to make way for another, perhaps 

 in response to some hint from behind. Then one by one they 

 would come out, circle about the spot and depart, sometimes 

 leaving one of their number tx> keep house all day alone. They 

 usually left the hole open but if there was a wasp within, it was 

 soon closed from below. During this playtime period they did 

 not return until they were ready to settl* down for the night, 

 the first one coming home at half after two or three o'clock and 

 the others arriving at intervals, none of them staying out later 

 than five. Most commonly they found the right spot without 

 trouble, scratched open the hole and then either closed it be- 

 hind them or stood waiting in the doorway for the next arrival. 

 Occasionally they had difiiculty in; locating the nest and worked 

 at two or three different places before finding it. 



We, kept these wasps under close observation, often watching 

 the nest from the moment it was opened in the morning until 

 it was closed at night. On the twelfth of August, a week from 

 the time that we first saw them, one of the females felt the re- 

 sponsibilities of life settling down upon her. At half after four 

 in the afternoon she began to enlarge the nest and worked with a 

 great deal of energy for forty minutes. After a long disappear- 

 ance within the hole she would come up* backwards, kicking be- 

 hind her a quantity of earth which was not only taken outside 

 but was then spread out far and wide. She worked with the 

 front pair of legs which were curved inward, after the manner 

 of Bcmlex, and when a pebble or some such object came in her 

 way she either dragged it to a distance with her mandibles or 



