72 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



before we discover that we have been deceived, scramble 

 to our feet and go scurrying after her again. Or perhaps 

 she darts under a grass-blade and there she sits, and sits, 

 and sits, occasionally scratching a bit at the ground or peep- 

 ing out as if to make sure that her secrets were not being 

 spied upon, and eventually darts out without doing a thing 

 and resumes her crazy journey. Probably these are forag- 

 ing trips, but in the summer months we have never seen 

 their activity lead to anything more than this vain search. 

 It may be because of the scarcity of spiders of adequate 

 size at that time of year, or due to the sexual immaturity of 

 the wasps. Later in the season, September and October, 

 their work seems to be more purposeful and their efforts 

 lead eventually to some results. 



On the afternoon of October 3, 1916, we met with one 

 such instance. A Priocnemis pompiliis was rushing hither 

 and thither over a small area of broken ground. We had 

 so often seen this species wandering about on the bare 

 ground inspecting crevices, and had been so constantly dis- 

 appointed in seeing them do nothing that we paid no atten- 

 tion to this one. Upon returning an hour later, however, 

 and finding apparently the same wasp running about in the 

 same small area, we suspected that there must be spiders 

 in the many depressions in the earth, so we sat down and 

 waited. 



The retina of one's mind, as well as the retina of the eye, 

 grows dull when weary of gazing at one thing, so our 

 thoughts were far away when, perhaps a half -hour later, 

 suddenly there was a great commotion hurry-tumble- 

 topsy-turvy ! The wasp had her spider and was stinging it. 

 The shock was so great, and the work was done so quickly, 

 that we could not see just how it .was done. The wasp left 

 her victim, ran around like wildfire for several seconds, 

 returned, stung it again and dragged it some distance away, 



