146 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



in sufficiently good condition to have served as food for any of 

 the nurslings to which we havei played foster-mother. 



This was our first specimen of marginatns, and a month, 

 passed before we met another. It was while watching some 

 Bembecidae that we saw the pretty little orange-spotted worker 

 dragging a small Thomisid across their nesting ground. The 

 spider was so small that she held it in her mandibles well above 

 the ground, and v/e only speak of her as dragging it because 

 she walked backward and acted as though she were obliged to 

 exert herself. Quite often the spiders taken by this species are 

 too large to be carried, and then it is necessary to drag them, 

 and this habit is so ingTained that when it would be much more 

 convenient to go straight ahead they stick to the ancient cus- 

 tom, and seem unable to move in any other way. This little 

 wasp was in a frantic hurry, running backward into the Benibex 

 holes and then scrambling out again until she had crossed the 

 field and had turned to one side, having gone, since we first saw 

 her, about fifteen feet. Here she dropped the spider and be- 

 gan to skim over the ground — it could not be called running 

 and yet it was not flying, — until she found a circular hole in 

 the black earth, which looked as if it ran vertically downward. 

 At the time we thought that this was a nest that she had made 

 for herself, but we afterward concluded that it had been ex- 

 cavated by some other creature, that she had found it and de- 

 termined to make use of it, and that she was bringing her prey 

 to the spot with that end in view. Without entering she rushed 

 back to the spider, but after carrying it a few inches, dropped it 

 and ran to take another look at the nest. By this time, how- 

 ever, she was too much excited to know what she was about, 

 and for five minutes she scurried over the ground without find- 

 ing it. During this time she picked up the spider four 

 times, carried it a little way and then dropped it. The last time 

 she carried it to the edge of the grass and stored it there, this 

 being her first attempt at concealment. She now found the 

 hole again and brought the spider nearly to it, but by this time 

 she was perfectly beside herself. The spider was seized again 



