BEHAVIOR OF POMPILID WASPS 69 



cautiously, thinking that here she would bury it. But no, 

 she could be seen, through a rent in the leaf, quietly at 

 rest before her spider. The wasp occasionally walked about 

 slowly under the leaf; apparently she only wanted a more 

 sheltered spot wherein to rest and loiter. Up to this point 

 she had travelled about sixty feet. 



Two o'clock came and there was no change; the sun beat 

 down hotly and our patience was strained. With the for- 

 ceps we gently pulled the spider out by its leg for a half- 

 inch. This instantly aroused the wasp to action; she 

 snatched the spider by its head and dragged it under the 

 leaf clear to the extreme opposite margin, paused a mo- 

 ment, as if undecided, and then impetuously seized her 

 prey and resumed her journey in earnest. There was much 

 difficulty in following her, owing to obstructions, vegetation 

 and poison ivy. She showed by her actions that she now 

 felt anxious and skeptical in our presence ; from 2 :o6 to 

 2:12 she remained at rest, but this time holding the spider 

 in her jaws all the time. Finally she regained enough con- 

 fidence to lay it down while she made her toilet for three 

 minutes. We should be glad to know if she purposely laid 

 down her prey so often in order to clean herself, or if she 

 only rubbed herself for a pastime when she paused to rest. 

 We have also wondered if all this was for the purpose of 

 personal daintiness, or if a part of this practice served as 

 a massage or an athletic rub-down of the tired muscles after 

 the strain of labor. 



At 2:15 the wasp made a very graceful attempt to climb 

 a log which lay over her path. How the insect became aware 

 of its presence without facing it to see it, or bumping into 

 it we cannot imagine, but she seemed somehow to sense the 

 location precisely. She backed up near to it, dragging her 

 spider until she came within reach of the log, when she 

 lifted her hind pair of legs high up in the air until they 



