November 1895.! 



PSYCHE. 



305 



In a number of cases, after several 

 spiders HmcI been stored, we gently drew 

 them out with a bent wire. In one 

 nest in which there were five spiders, 

 we found, two hours alter thev had been 

 stored, tiiat three were alive and two 

 were dead. In another which the wasp 

 had just begun to seal up were ten 

 spiders. Three of these were injured 

 ill being drawn out. Of the remainder 

 four were alive and three dead. On 

 the anterior part of the dorsum of one 

 of the living spiders was the egg. It 

 had probably been fertilized as the 

 female carried the male into the nest 

 on her back. 



When a female returns with her load 

 she usually hunts about for a few mo- 

 ments before finding her nest, often 

 entering two or three that are empty or 

 are occupied bv other wasps bv mistake, 

 so that il would seem that their sense 

 of locality is not very strongly de- 

 veloped. 



After the storing process is completed 

 the female seals up the nest with mud. 

 In the case of one riihrocinctum that we 

 were watching she began to close the 

 opening at 4.43 p.m. and finislu-d her 

 work just thirty minutes later. In tliis 

 time she made ten journeys for mud 

 bringing it in pellets in her mandibles. 

 In another case, also a riihrocinctum, 

 the female, after bringing so manv 

 spiders that the cell was full up to the 

 very door (which we saw in no other 

 case), went awaj' without closing it and 

 never returned. The male seemed 

 uneasy at her conduct and several times 

 flew away, staying an hour or two and 



then returning; but after a time he too 

 deserted the nest. Whether some evil 

 fate overtook the female or whether 

 there was some failiue of instinct on 

 her part can only be conjectured, but 

 the latter hypothesis is not untenable, 

 since out of twenty-six nests that we 

 had under observation tiiree were 

 cleaned out and prepared and were 

 then sealed up empt}'. We have often 

 fount! similar cases among the nests of 

 the blue mnd-dauljer wasps where it is 

 not a very inicommon thing for the 

 absent-mintled females to build their 

 pretty little cylindrical nests with in- 

 finite care and patience and then to 

 seal them up without putting anything 

 insitle. 



One afternoon as we sat, literall}', at 

 our posts, a female of albopilostirn came 

 himiming along looking very important 

 and energetic, as though she had 

 planned beforehand exactlv what to do. 

 She entered an einpty hole, head fiist, 

 and at once began to gnaw at the wood, 

 kicking it out backwards with consid- 

 erable violence. After a few minutes 

 she changed her method of work, and 

 began to carry out loads of wood dust 

 in her mandibles, dropping it in little 

 showers just outside the nest, and then 

 hastening back. In fortv minutes she 

 carried out, in this wav, upwards of 

 fifty loads. She then flew away, but 

 returned in ten minutes with a male. 

 She alighted, he took his place on her 

 back and they went in together. 



After a time they came out and both 

 flew away, but the next morning they 

 came back and the nest was stored. 



