WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



quite unconscious of the fact that greater things had 

 been expected of her. 



We had placed a stone upon a dead leaf near by, to 

 mark the neighborhood of the nest, thinking that even a 

 Cerceris could not object to so simple an arrangement 

 of natural objects; but our wasp noticed it at once, and 

 evidently with much suspicion and disapproval. She 

 began by circling several times just above it. Then she 

 alighted on it and examined it carefully, walking over 

 it, and creeping underneath, perhaps to see whether it 

 in any way menaced the safety of her nest, perhaps as 

 the completion of a locality study made the day before. 

 She then rose on her wings, and after a little more cir- 

 cHng, dropped suddenly into her hole. 



So far we had not been getting on very rapidly, but 

 from this time things took a turn. Cerceris is never in a 

 hurry, and yet she may be relied upon to do a certain 

 amount of work every day. The one that we were now 

 watching had probably come back for a final look at her 

 newly made nest before beginning to provision it; for 

 she soon reappeared, and this time really went to work, 

 since in forty minutes she brought home a beetle which 

 she carried by the snout, venter up, in her mandibles, 

 supporting it with the second pair of legs while flying. 

 She was much annoyed at our presence, and circled 



146 



