BEHAVIOR OF POMPILID WASPS 75 



She emerged from her burrow and walked directly up 

 to where the spider lay and dragged it down to the hole 

 very easily. She did not immediately take it in, as we had 

 expected, but squeezed in alongside it exactly as before for 

 that supremely important final examination. Then, alas, 

 she came out and as usual bumped against the spider so 

 hard that it plunged down the eighteen inches, and she 

 went tumbling after. The instinct of unnumbered genera- 

 tions of always examining the depths of the nest while the 

 prey is at the door was not to be undone, even if she must 

 go only three inches from the hole since the last scrutiny. 



Her next scheme was to drag the spider up the steep 

 declivity under the hole, then a little to one side and let it 

 rest in the crotch of a protruding root while she again en- 

 tered the hole. Now there is really and truly a limit to the 

 patience of a naturalist, so we helped her, and glad she 

 seemed to receive the aid. When she stepped aside again to 

 get the spider, we pressed a notebook against the bank to 

 form a shelf just beneath the hole. When the little wasp 

 came with her ponderous prize she found that it would rest 

 securely and exactly flush with the hole. She went in, as 

 always, to examine the bottom of the burrow, came up and 

 protruded only her head, grasped the spider and attempted 

 to bring it in. Alas! the hole was not large enough to 

 admit it! Is it not remarkable that, through all her dogged 

 determination to examine the hole immediately before tak- 

 ing her prey in, it had evidently never occurred to her that 

 the hole was far too small to admit the spider at all ? This 

 is very different from the accurate methods of many other 

 species discussed in these pages. She did not seem at all 

 disconcerted, but shoved out her spider, removed several 

 mouthfuls of dirt at the opening and then had no trouble 

 in getting it in. 



Both disappeared in the depths. After more than an 



