AMMOPHILA AND HER CATERPILLARS 



owner appeared and gave chase, compelling her to relin- 

 quish it. 



The things that struck us as most remarkable were the 

 unerring judgment in the selection of a pebble of precisely 

 the right size to fit the entrance, and the use of the small 

 pebble in smoothing down and packing the soil over the 

 opening, together with the instinct that taught them to 

 remove every evidence that the earth had been dis- 

 turbed. 



Since the Ammophiles of our species make their nests 

 first and then do their hunting it follows that they must 

 sometimes carry their prey for a considerable distance. 

 The most ambitious attempt of this kind that we ever 

 witnessed was made by gracilis. 



The wasp was first seen carrying a large green cater- 

 pillar, which projected at both ends beyond her own 

 body, across the potato field at the lower end of the gar- 

 den. We could not tell how far she had already brought 

 it, but judging by the direction from which she was 

 coming, and by the fact that we had never seen that 

 species of caterpillar in the .garden, she had probably 

 come through the fence from the woods beyond. She 

 moved along briskly over the remaining part of the 

 potato field, and then through an adjoining bean patch 

 into the corn field. This had been a place of much anx- 

 iety to us earlier in the summer ; but now the corn had 



43 



