SEVERAL LITTLE WASPS 



were in the full fervor of hunting and longed to utilize 

 every moment, the wasps in our garden seemed to have 

 resolved that enjoyment and enjoyment only was their 

 destined end and way, and became so exasperatingly 

 idle that in disgust we turned to the cabin. For half an 

 hour we saw nothing more exciting than a Trypoxylon 

 immuring her victims and a Pompilus hunting spiders 

 under the eaves, but at the end of that time Passolocus 

 annulatus, a tiny wasp new to us, came flying quietly 

 along and entered one of the holes with which the ends of 

 the logs were riddled. She was carrying an aphis in her 

 mandibles, and when this was duly stored she reap- 

 peared and flew away. She had probably just renewed 

 her work after a spell of rest, since from this time on for 

 nearly an hour she came back regularly every four or five 

 minutes. She nearly always alighted on a blade of grass 

 before going into the nest, but did not appear to be 

 malaxing her prey. Presently another stage in the game 

 was reached. She no longer brought aphides, but little 

 pellets of mud with which she plastered up the opening. 

 After she had finished this task and departed, we care- 

 fully chiseled into the log and laid bare the nest. The 

 tunnel ran in for about three inches, and ended in three 

 pockets which were well stocked with dead aphides, 

 there being fifty-seven in all. The innermost cell con- 



8? 



