2o8 INSECT LIFE 



XV 



being closes the shaft with it. Next day, when it 

 is hot again, and when the sun bathes the slopes and 

 favours the chase, she will know perfectly well how 

 to find her home again, secured by the massive 

 door, and she will return with a paralysed caterpillar, 

 seized by the nape of its neck and dragged between 

 its captor's feet ; she will lift the stone, which is just 

 like all the others near, and the secret of which is 

 known only to her, will carry down the prey, lay an 

 ^SSy ^^^ t^^" st*^P ^h^ burrow once for all by 

 sweeping into the shaft all the rubbish kept near at 

 hand. 



Several times I have seen this temporary closing 

 of the hole by A. sabulosa and A. argentata when 

 the sun grew low and the late hour obliged them to 

 wait until the next day to go out hunting. When 

 they had put the seals on their dwellings I too 

 waited for the morrow to continue my observations, 

 but first I made sure of the spot by taking my 

 bearings and sticking in some bits of wood in order 

 to rediscover the well when closed, and always, 

 unless I came too early, if I let the Hymenopteron 

 profit by full sunshine, I found the burrow stored 

 and closed for good and all. 



The fidelity of memory shown here is striking. 

 The insect, belated at its work, puts off completing 

 it until the morrow. It passes neither evening nor 

 night in the new-made abode, but departs after 

 marking the entrance with a small stone. The spot 

 is no more familiar to it than any other, for like 

 Sphex occitanica the Ammophila lodges her family 

 here and there as she may chance to wander. The 

 creature came here by chance, like the soil, and dug 



