WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



continued to grow for two days longer, when it died 

 also, being at the time about two thirds grown. We had 

 great trouble in protecting our growing larvae from the 

 inroads of fungi, and this was one of the many that per- 

 ished from that cause. 



The next example of fasciatus that came under our 

 notice was a remarkable contrast to the one that we 

 have just described, being as slow and dignified as the 

 other was nervous and hurried. She chose a place and 

 kept to it, her steady labor being interrupted only by 

 occasional visits to the spider; but it took her fifty min- 

 utes to complete the nest. When finished it was a small 

 gallery running down obliquely for an inch and a half 

 into the ground. 



The only habit that this species can claim as peculiar 

 to itself is the strange and useless one of filling up the 

 partly made nests that it is about to abandon. We have 

 never seen the sense of order carried to so high a point 

 in any other wasp. 



On a hillside near our cottage stands a log cabin, 

 deserted and untenanted save for small creatures of the 

 wild, which, though a favorite spot with wood-boring 

 wasps, is an unprofitable place for study because of the 

 difficulty of cutting out their nests without destroying 

 property. One day in early July, however, when we 

 84 



