1911] Turner — Habits of an American Ammophila 13 



A XOTE ON THE HUNTING HABITS OF AN A:MERICAN 



AMMOPHILA. 



By C. H. Turner. 

 Sumner High School, St. Louis, Mo. 



Fabre found that the Ammophilas studied by him stored their 

 nests w4th caterpillars which they dug out of the ground. The 

 published results of American students of these wasps seem to 

 indicate that our native Ammophilas have a different habit. Carl 

 Hartman^ found that the large Ammophila procera stores its 

 nest with the tomato caterpillar, and the Peckhams* say that 

 Ammophila urnaria never digs for her prey. A chance observa- 

 tion, made this fall, shows that some American Ammophilas 

 dig in the ground for caterpillars -^v-ith which to stock their nests. 

 It was about eleven o'clock on the morning of September 17th, 

 1910. The day was warm and the sun was shining brightly. 

 In sauntering along a narrow foot-path on the top of a hill at 

 Edgemont, 111., I noticed an Ammophila sp. digging in the 

 barren pathway. 



Thinking that she was digging a nest, I dropped upon the 

 ground to observe her method of work. After biting out a bit 

 of earth with her mandibles, she would retreat a distance of 

 about three times her length, then flirt broadcast, the dirt 

 and return for another load. Her movements were so quick 

 and jerky that one is tempted to call them nervous. Twice she 

 left the spot and flew away, only to return and continue the exca- 

 vation. After she had dug just deep enough for her prothorax 

 to be hidden from xiew, she suddenly disappeared into the ground. 

 This was my first intimation that the wasp was not digging an 

 original burrow. Even then I did not grasp the full significance 

 of her beha^'ior, for I immediately concluded that she had uncov- 

 ered a burrow which had been made by her earlier in the morning. 



lObservations on the Solitarj- Wasp of Texas, 1905, p. 13. 

 2The Solitary Wasp, 1898, p. 9. 



