WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



up in despair, and we took possession of the deserted 

 caterpillar. 



Just here must be told the story of one little wasp 

 whose individuality stands out in our minds more dis- 

 tinctly than that of any of the others. We remember 

 her as the most fastidious and perfect little worker of 

 the whole season, so nice was she in her adaptation of 

 means to ends, so busy and contented in her labor of 

 love, and so pretty in her pride over the completed work. 

 In filling up her nest she put her head down into it and 

 bit away the loose earth from the sides, letting it fall to 

 the bottom of the burrow, and then, after a quantity 

 had accumulated, jammed it down with her head. Earth 

 was then brought from the outside and pressed in, and 

 then more was bitten from the sides. When, at last, the 

 filling was level with the ground, she brought a quantity 

 of fine grains of dirt to the spot, and picking up a small 

 pebble in her mandibles, used as it a hammer in pound- 

 ing them down with rapid strokes, thus making this 

 spot as hard and firm as the surrounding surface. Be- 

 fore we could recover from our astonishment at this 

 performance she had dropped her stone and was bring- 

 ing more earth. We then threw ourselves down on the 

 ground that not a motion might be lost, and in a mo- 

 ment we saw her pick up the pebble and again pound 

 38 



