i8 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



cunningly that we can seldom spy them at their work. But 

 there is no chance for doubt when Bembix is abroad ; others 

 may equal her in quiet diligence, but she works with un- 

 equalled commotion and bluster. Since these are solitary 

 wasps working in communities and have a habit of robbing 

 each other of prey, as we shall see later, they must work 

 nervously. A wholly solitary wasp, or one which works in 

 cooperation instead of competition with others, can afford 

 to work much more calmly and deliberately. She alights 

 upon a spot on the bare surface of the field a spot with- 

 out a trace of anything which we can discern to distinguish 

 it from all the rest of the large, bald area several yards in 

 width, yet this particular spot seems to be her choice, and 

 there is something about it whereby she can remember it 

 and distinguish it from all the remainder of the large area 

 in returning to it again and again. Here she at once begins 

 her digging. In this task she always works with an intensity 

 which makes her appear to be driven by some fury. She 

 cannot wait to calmly carry out load after load of dirt, as 

 her sister species do, but, after having torn the earth loose 

 with her mandibles, she scratches or kicks it back with her 

 forelegs straight between her hind legs and far out behind 

 her, in a spurting stream or jet. Much of the time, when 

 she is working on or near the surface of the ground, she 

 throws an almost unbroken stream of dirt out behind her 

 as she digs, often hurling it as far as ten inches back of 

 her. The front legs are provided with bristles which serve 

 as brushes or rakes, with which she sweeps back the dirt. 

 To do this, she is compelled to stoop forward; this gives 

 her a comical appearance of "sweeping with her elbows," 

 as the Peckhams suggest for another species of Bembix. 



Often she seems dissatisfied with her location and makes 

 several beginnings in as many different places, although we 

 have never been able to see the slightest reason why the 



