298 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 



other tribes of insects, and the dramas, 

 absurd or tragic, always enacting in the 

 air about us or on the ground under our 

 feet, must be witnessed to be appreciated. 

 Insects, like other animals, seem not to 

 be devoid of curiosity. One day a small 

 green katydid intently observing the sand 

 coming out of a hole where a small black 

 Sphex was digging away for dear life, went 

 and looked in when the wasp retired with 

 a load of earth, upon which the wasp be- 

 came greatly excited and fell upon that 

 katydid and chased him away. Once 

 more the too curious katydid walked to- 

 ward the hole, but he did not look in this 

 time, for the wasp, with quivering wings 

 and angry buzzing, ran after him and he 

 scampered off not to return, evidently con- 

 cluding that discretion was preferable to 

 gratified curiosity under the circumstances. 



