THE BEMBICENE WASPS 15 



reason, would immediately pounce upon it with a heavy 

 thump and thus arouse it to return at once to the dance. 

 The other two pairs that succeeded in mating made their 

 speedy escape to avoid rivalry. This accounts for the wild 

 dashes outside the area of the dance which we observed 

 in the first year; the escape from the crowd has become so 

 necessary a part of the act of mating that a dash for safety 

 from the throng has become an integral part of every sug- 

 gestion of mating or false mating. 



In the midst of this pretty play we were driven from the 

 field by the human proprietors of the baseball diamond, and 

 when we saw the clouds of dust rise from the trampling 

 of many spiked shoes, it seemed inevitable that the little 

 Bembix would be driven from the homes of their ancestors. 

 In the afternoon we returned, but found another set of ball- 

 players and many spectators doing their best to exterminate 

 our pets. The next day at 8:30, however, true to their 

 fatherland they were there and even more abundant than 

 on the first day, although how they could have escaped 

 extermination during the terrible trampling will always be 

 a marvel. Wasps do not migrate far from the place in 

 which they are born. This in a peaceful locality might 

 show only indifference, but when even a noisy American 

 baseball crowd cannot drive them from their home it proves 

 persistence of a most surprising degree. Where these Bem- 

 bix had spent the night we know not. We certainly do 

 not see how it would have been possible for any of them to 

 locate their former holes from which they had emerged on 

 the trampled and dusty earth, even if they had so desired. 

 They may have slept on the grass and weeds surrounding 

 this area, but in extensive studies of the sleep of insects in 

 this field we have never found a Bembix asleep on the 

 vegetation. The bare ground presented no newly-dug holes 

 which they might have, made for their sleeping quarters, 



