42 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



She follows the same method in departing from the nest 

 or in starting homeward from the field when foraging. She 

 rises straight up in the air, so high that it is difficult to fol- 

 low her with the eye in the dazzling sunlight, then darts away 

 horizontally above the heads of most living things. 



We once watched one climbing in and out among the 

 branches of a cocklebur plant, carrying her little bug snugly 

 beneath her, resting once or twice on a leaf. All at once, 

 without provocation, she leaped up into the air and flew 

 straight upward, higher, higher, until we lost her in the 

 dazzling sunlight, but in a few seconds she came down from 

 her highway in the skies, straight down to a spot only ten 

 feet distant from where she had started. Here she scratched 

 on the ground at her feet, opened her hole and went in with- 

 out letting go her prey. She remained within for about 

 fifteen minutes, and closed the hole lightly behind her with 

 loose sand when she came out before departing upward. 



The prey which she brought into the nest was, in all 

 cases observed, a small bug. She clasped it beneath her 

 abdomen, and in the one or two cases which we have been 

 able to observe minutely, carried it with the bug's ventral 

 side toward her own. The four bugs found in one nest 

 were all somewhat similar but of different species, all 

 nymphs of Pentatomidae [E. H. Gibson]. 



The two holes which we dug out were .unlike. They re- 

 sembled a Bembix nubilipennis hole in general appearance, 

 penetrating the ground at an angle of thirty to forty de- 

 grees with the surface. One was twelve inches long, and 

 straight ; the other was seventeen inches in total length, and 

 the large, terminal pocket was nine and a half inches below 

 the surface of the ground. The burrow curved irregularly, 

 forming half a spiral. 



