210 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



species, but, of course, with variations which mark the different species. One 

 individual, whose behaviour they watched, was so precise in all she did that we cannot 

 refrain from quoting part of their account : — " We remember her as the most fas- 

 tidious and perfect little worker of the whole season, so nice was she in her adaptation 

 of means to ends, so busy and contented in her labour of love, and so pretty in her 

 pride over the completed work. In filling up her nest she put her head down into 

 it and bit away the loose earth from the sides, letting it fall to the bottom of the 

 burrow, and then, after a quantity had accumulated, jammed it down with her head. 

 Earth was then brought from the outside and pressed in, and then more was bitten 

 from the sides. When, at last, the filhng was level with the ground, she brought 

 a quantity of fine grains of dirt to the spot, and picking up a small pebble in her 

 mandibles, used it as a hammer in pounding them down with rapid strokes, thus 



making this spot as hard and firm 

 as the surrounding surface. Before 

 we could recover from our astonish- 

 ment at this performance she had 

 dropped her stone and was bringing 

 more earth. We then threw our- 

 selves down on the ground that not 

 a motion might be lost, and in a 

 moment we saw her pick up the 

 pebble and again pound the earth 

 into place with it, tiammering now 

 here and now there until all was 

 level. Once more the whole process 

 was repeated, and then the little 

 creature, all unconscious of the com- 

 motion that she had aroused in our 

 minds — unconscious, indeed, of our 

 very existence and intent only on 

 doing her work and doing it well — 

 gave one final, comprehensive glance 

 around and flew aw-ay." 

 Dr. S. W. Williston records an experience with another species ^ that is very 

 similar to the hammering noted by the Peckhams. 



Sphex — the typical genus of the sand-wasp family — has had its doings 

 chronicled at length by Fabre. We have no representative of the genus in this 

 country, but in the South of France occurs the yellow-winged sphex ^ to which 

 the famous French naturalist has devoted much attention. Like ammophila, 

 sphex is a very strenuous worker, and during the four weeks or so of its existence 

 in the winged state, it sinks no fewer than ten deep, perpendicular shafts, each with 

 three or four separate chambers at the bottom, stored with food, and each furnished 

 with an egii,. It selects a slight elevation of the soil, and into this it bores a hori- 

 zontal gallery two or three inches in length. At the end of this gallery it sinks 

 the perpendicular shaft, also for a depth of about three inches, and at the bottom 



Yellow-winged Sphex. 



During the month which is the period of this wasp's winged existence, she 

 contrives to dig about ten shafts, each with three or four cells leading from 

 it at the bottom. Each cell is provisioned with three or four field- 

 crickets, all carefully stung in the principal nerve-centres, so that though 

 helpless they remain alive. 



1 Ammophila yarrowii. 



^ Sphex flavipennis. 



