THE BURROWERS 



PHILANTHUS PUNCTATUS 



On August thirteenth, at half after eight in the morn- 

 ing, we found that a second female, perhaps inspired by 

 the example of her sister, 

 had made a new nest 

 within two inches of the 

 first one, and had flown 

 away, leaving it open. 

 Presently the other wasps 

 began to appear, one after 

 the other, in their door- 

 way. Two of the males 

 flew away, and one of the females, doubtless the one 

 that we had seen digging the night before, began to 

 work afresh at making the nest larger. Probably she 

 was excavating a pocket for the reception of an egg, 

 and the amount of labor required was emormously in- 

 creased by the great length (about twenty- two inches) 

 of the main gallery by which the displaced earth must 

 be carried out. She worked for an hour, and in spread- 

 ing the dirt about, inadvertently filled in the opening 

 of the second nest. At length she flew away. 



At ten o'clock a female arrived carrying a bee, and 

 tried to find nest No. 2. She came to the wrong place, 

 and worked about, here and there, for some minutes, 

 holding the bee under the thorax, clasped by the second 



157 



