THE ENEMIES OF THE GRASSHOPPER 



from below, when it jumped away to a place of safety. 

 Before the day's hunting began, a long study of the 

 locality was made on foot, tufts of grass, weeds and 

 stones being carefully noted, and this accounts for the 

 ease with which the nest is afterward found. 



One July afternoon we saw a little red Tachysphex 

 tarsata on the Bembex field of the island. She had a 

 very anxious air, and was running about wildly and 

 rapidly, holding a small grasshopper with the third 

 pair of legs. She let it drop four or five times, and when 

 she picked it up again she seemed to sting it, but of 

 this we were not quite certain. At last she left it and 

 began to rush about, investigating the Bembex holes, 

 entering one of them and perhaps throwing out a little 

 dirt as though she intended to use it, and then hurrying 

 off to another. We have no doubt that her confusion 

 was the result of her having lost track of a hole that 

 she had made, as was the case with P. quinquenotatus 

 in one of our earlier observations. The Pompilus, after 

 a long search, resigned herself to the necessities of the 

 case and made a new nest ; but this little wasp could not 

 adjust herself to a break in the system of her instinctive 

 activities, and at last deserted her prey and disappeared. 

 We waited for an hour; and then, as she did not re- 

 turn, we took possession of the grasshopper. It gave no 

 261 



