WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



and the larva was just spinning its cocoon; so that the 

 larval stage probably occupies about a week. 



A summary of our notes shows a very wide variation 

 in the condition of the spiders stored by this wasp. Out 

 of eleven that were stung three were killed at once, two 

 lived four days, one five, one eleven, one twenty-three, 

 one twenty-five, one thirty-one, and one at least forty 

 days and probably longer. 



We look back with much pleasure upon our acquaint- 

 ance with this gay, excitable little wasp. She was so full 

 of breezy energy that it was always delightful to meet 

 her, and she showed so wide a variation in individual 

 character that we seldom watched her without learning 

 something new. 



Pompilus fuscipennis, a little smaller than P. quinque- 

 notatus, is black, with the red girdle that appears so 

 frequently among the sohtary wasps. The first time 

 that we ever saw this wasp she was running rapidly 

 backward over the bare ground, the brilliant red of her 

 body flashing in the sunhght as she dragged along a little 

 spider of the genus Thomisus. Presently she carried it 

 up on to a leaf and began to bite at it, but being dis- 

 turbed by an ant, hurried on with a much agitated man- 

 ner. Soon she stopped again and resumed her attack, 

 biting savagely at the legs near their junction with the 



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