48 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



searching vaguely in the general region, but most of the 

 time six to twelve feet distant from her spider. She 

 searched by walking a few inches, then hopping and flying 

 a foot or two, occasionally taking a circle on the wing just 

 above the grass-tops. She seemed to gain no headway in 

 her search, so presently she went over to a small patch of 

 cockleburs, which was six feet from the spider, and hopped 

 and circled over the plants with an air of getting her bear- 

 ings. Her behavior made us wonder if she had originally 

 found the spider near these plants and had gone back to 

 retrace her steps. Then she started out in the direction 

 of the grass-plot, but missed her prey, so she went back 

 to the cockleburs again, repeated the performance, and this 

 time went almost directly to her spider. She pounced upon 

 it viciously, as if she thought it necessary that it be at- 

 tacked vigorously, and got a good grip, grasping it by its 

 ventral side back of the third pair of legs. 



She dragged it thus a foot or so, walking backward and 

 pulling like a dray-horse; then poised it in some grasses 

 and went back to hunt a place for a hole. She found a 

 depression in the earth, a place where we had dug with a 

 trowel the day before. The ground was dry and hard, with 

 much dust on top. She tried spots here and there in the 

 side-walls of this hole, scratching and biting furiously in 

 eight different places, but she found the ground too hard 

 and the surface dust fell in on her. After trying thus a 

 long while, she went straight back to her spider two feet 

 away and brought it nearer, then returned to dig, as if 

 satisfied that this place was as good as she could expect to 

 find. Then she seemed suddenly to decide upon her spot, 

 and, after just a few strokes of digging, for the first time 

 she swept the dirt back from the space immediately in front 

 of the hole. It was hard digging, so while she was gone 

 visit her spider again we pierced the firm surface crust 



