14 Ps^yche [February 



After the lapse of a few minutes, the wasp slowly emerged from 

 the burrow until her two posterior pairs of legs and all of her 

 body, except the prothrorax and head, were outside of the hole. 

 Bracing herself with her legs and straining every muscle of her 

 body, the Ammophila spent fully five minutes tugging and pulling 

 at something in the burrow. And at what? Presently a portion 

 of a caterpillar became visible in the mouth of the burrow. A 

 few more minutes of tugging and pulling and a large caterpillar 

 was dragged to the surface and to a short distance from the 

 burrow. The Ammophila had been digging for prey! 



After dragging the caterpillar a short distance from the hole, 

 the Ammophila held it, with her mandibles, by the back of the 

 neck and, curving her abdomen around to the ventral side of the 

 caterpillar, stung it several times. Although the stinging was 

 done deliberately, yet it was done so quickly that, from my posi- 

 tion, it was impossible to determine into which somites the sting 

 was thrust. Ha\'ing completed the stinging, the Ammophila 

 proceeded to malaxate the neck. Fully five minutes were occu- 

 pied in this procedure. All of this time the caterpillar had been 

 resting with its ventral side towards the ground. The Ammopliila 

 now rolled the caterpillar over upon its back, straddled it, and, 

 grasping it by the throat -^-ith her mandibles, walked rapidly 

 away, trailing the limp insect beneath her body. At about two 

 yards from the spot where the caterpillar was captured, the wasp 

 placed it on a lower twig of a bush, made an orienting flight and 

 flew away. 



A pressing engagement forced me to leave at this stage and 

 prevented me from seeing what disposition the wasp made of 

 the caterpillar; but, although I did not see this wasp place that 

 caterpillar lq a burrow, yet I did see a wasp of the same species 

 carry a caterpillar of the same kind into a burrow; and a friend of 

 mine, who was waiting for me in a different portion of the field, 

 saw an Ammophila of the same species place a similar caterpillar 

 in a burrow and seal it. E\'idently some of our American Ammo- 

 philas resemble those studied by Fabre in storing their nests with 

 subterranean caterpillars. 



