AMMOPHILA AND HER CATERPILLARS 



Then she flew to a bush which grew against the fence, 

 three iVet away, and following her quickly we saw an 

 immense green caterpillar placed high up on a branch. 

 It must have taken both strength and perseverance to 

 lift this heavy weight so far from the ground. She seized 

 it at once and carried it down, not flying, as these wasps 

 sometimes do when they are descending with a burden, 

 and then dragged it into her nest, where it fitted rather 

 tightly. This nest was so shallow and so obliquely di- 

 rected that the caterpillar was plainly visible after it had 

 been taken in. 



After she had laid her egg she crawled out, getting 

 past the caterpillar with some difficulty, and closed the 

 nest. There was certainly no room for any further store 

 of provisions, and from the size of the caterpillar we 

 judged that it would furnish sufficient nourishment even 

 for the offspring of this wasp. We were, therefore, not 

 surprised, upon opening the nest two days later, to find 

 that nothing more had been brought. We have said that 

 the wasp larvae spend from six days to two weeks in eat- 

 ing. To be more exact, all that we watched, with the 

 exception of the one which developed from the egg of 

 this big creature, ate from six to eight days and then 

 spun their cocoons; but this one seemed determined to 

 reach the size of its mother, and ate continuously for 



49 



