104. ‘The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
are wasps that store their nests with the bodies of spiders for 
their young to feed on. In Australia, I often witnessed a 
wasp combating with a large flat spider that is found on the 
bark of trees. It would fall to the ground, and lie on its back, 
so as to be able to grapple with its opponent; but the wasp 
was always the victor in the encounters I saw, although it 
was not always allowed to carry its prey off in peace. One 
day, sitting on the sand-banks on the coast of Hobson’s Bay, 
I saw one dragging along a large spider. Three or four inches 
above it hovered two minute flies, keeping a little behind, 
and advancing with it. The wasp seemed much disturbed 
by the presence of the tiny flies, and twice left its prey to fly 
up towards them, but they darted away immediately. As 
soon as the wasp returned to the spider, there they were 
hovering over and following it again. At last, unable to 
drive away its small tormenters, the wasp reached its burrow 
and took down the spider, and the two flies stationed them- 
selves one on each side the entrance, and would, doubtless, 
when the wasp went away to seek another victim, descend and 
lay their own eggs in the nest. 
The variety of wasps, as of all other insects, was very great 
around Santo Domingo. Many made papery nests, hanging 
from the undersides of large leaves. Others hung their open 
cells underneath verandahs and eaves of houses. One large 
black one was particularly abundant about houses, and many 
people got stung by them. They also build their pendent 
nests in the orange and lime trees, and it is not always safe 
to gather the fruit. Fortunately they are heavy flyers, and 
can often be struck down or evaded in their attacks. They 
do good where there are gardens, as they feed their young 
on caterpillars, and are continually hunting for them. 
Another species, banded brown and yellow (Polistes carnifex), 
has similar habits, but is not so common. Bates, in his 
account of the habits of the sand-wasps at Santarem, on the 
Amazon, gives an interesting account of the way in which 
they took a few turns in the air around the hole they had 
made in the sand, before leaving to seek for flies in the forest, 
apparently to mark well the position of the burrow, so that 
on their return they might find it without difficulty. He 
remarks that this precaution would be said to be instinctive, 
but that the instinct is no mysterious and unintelligible 
