66 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



gallery was kicked out, but no attempt was made to clear 

 away the debris from her own door. 



We looked for a spider which we suspected she must have 

 near by, but found none. Once when we intruded too close 

 she fled to the top of a bank some fifteen feet away, but 

 soon returned to her hole. After a few minutes more of 

 digging she flew again to the same place on the top of the 

 bank and picked up the prey she had deftly concealed among 

 the vegetation. She at once grabbed it by its ventral cen~ 

 ter, where the legs join the body, and walked backward 

 toward her hole, with the spider in a vertical position. She 

 reached the ledge just above the hole, dropped her spider 

 and entered a false hole but soon discovered her error, took 

 up her burden and proceeded direct to her own burrow, 

 leaving the spider twice while she went on to examine the 

 nest; but, on these last two visits, she did not stop to get 

 a firm hold upon it as before, but grasped it in any way 

 convenient, by the head or legs, to drag it to the hole. At 

 the very brink she laid her victim down for a moment, 

 with its head toward the hole, while she went inside for the 

 final inspection. She came up and slowly and deliberately 

 turned the spider around, grasped it by the anus and 

 dragged it in. As it was pulled thus into the hole, all the 

 legs turned forward and pressed firmly against the body of 

 the spider; then we could see the logic of her choosing that 

 position. But what impressed us most was the deliberate 

 and careful manner which the wasp displayed in turning 

 the arachnid around, so that the rounded and appendageless 

 part could be grasped. It was no accident, but a delib- 

 erate act. 



She remained within for one hour. When we opened the 

 nest, we found the spider resting still with its head toward 

 the exit (fig. 13, exact size), and on its right side was the 

 wasp's egg. The wasp's last hour had evidently been spent 



