n6 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



thus did exactly the same, but when finally she returned to 

 her hole with a bee of her own she seemed to become con- 

 fused at the sight of ours lying there, hesitated and dropped 

 her own and flew away. 



The Peckhams have some very interesting notes on the 

 stinging habits and general behavior of this wasp. They 

 also illustrate a nest which, in shape, is unlike anything we 

 describe here. They find that the males of this species 

 construct lodgings in the sand, and return to them night 

 after night to sleep. 



Pseudanthophihis vertilabris 1 Fab. [S. A. Rohwer]. 



On the afternoon of September 16 a little pile of dirt, 

 about two inches in diameter, appeared to have been newly 

 excavated and lay covering the mouth of a hole. A P. ver- 

 tUabris alighted on the pile, carrying an insect snug beneath 

 her body, and walked about as if seeking a place to enter. 

 She dropped her prey for a few seconds while she explored 

 the mound; this gave us the opportunity to see that it was 

 a little bee all yellow with pollen. She soon picked up her 

 property again and, carrying it between her legs to a precise 

 spot on the opposite side of the pile, began excavating and 

 kicking the dirt up behind her, all the while keeping a firm 

 hold upon her precious bee with her middle legs while the 

 forelegs dug up the soil, and an instant later the hind legs 

 flung it back. Her method of proceeding with her work 

 seemed to be : after she had gone inside the channel, to leave 

 her insect in the part of the gallery already cleared, retreat 

 to the opening and kick out the dirt, go back and excavate 

 some more and move the insect down to the new clear spot. 



1 This wasp is generally known as Philanthus vcntilabris or P. verti- 

 labris. 



