BEE-KILLING WASPS 117 



After a minute or two of this work, she came out and began 

 vigorously kicking in the soil. At this point we had to take 

 her or run the risk of losing her identity. Upon opening the 

 burrow, we found the top two inches filled in loosely and the 

 remainder empty. The hole sloped downward at an angle of 

 forty-five degrees, first toward the southeast for ten inches, 

 then it turned west and then reversed sharply and went di- 

 rectly east. We could not accurately follow the sharp 

 curves of the channel, but at the end were found a pupal case 

 and a larva, both surrounded by bits of black chitin. It was 

 one of the longest wasp tunnels that we have seen. It was 

 little wonder that the abundant soil on the surface made a 

 conspicuous mound. Is it then the custom of these wasps to 

 continue using the same hole for several offspring? It cer- 

 tainly appears so, since this burrow already contained two 

 babes of different ages. We do not know whether the bee 

 which the mother wasp was bringing in was intended for 

 food for the larva already in the nest, or to be a host of 

 another egg. 



The Peckhams have a short note on P. vertildbris, wherein 

 they tell how she takes bees of several genera and species 

 into a ground nest. She carries her prey with her second 

 pair of legs, and closes the door whenever she leaves the nest. 

 Robertson finds the adults feeding on the flowers of 

 various species of Solidago. Packard figures this species in 

 the American Naturalist, i : 77, 1868, and his Guide, p. 158, 

 1885, where he mentions this as "our most common south- 

 ward form." 



The Peckhams tell us how P. punctatus males make holes 

 in the sand wherein to spend the night, and we found a 

 male of this species, P. vertilabris, hiding one evening at 

 deep twilight, in the burrow of a cincindela beetle. 



