WASPS THAT PREY ON BEETLES 127 



A second, "and a little later a third, wasp of this species at- 

 tempted to enter this nest. 



Another C. fumipennis, at St. Louis, alighted in a hole 

 in the ground made by a peg. Immediately she began to 

 bite the dirt in the side and throw out the soil thus loos- 

 ened, all the while struggling to force her body into the new 

 hole. From the time the bore was deep enough to admit half 

 of her body, she began working on the sides and top. In 

 this task she twisted herself around to work from all direc- 

 tions alike, and sometimes turned herself completely upside 

 down. While in these difficult positions, she would brace 

 herself in a variety of skillful ways by pushing with her 

 legs. . After only ten minutes digging, the hole was deep 

 enough to conceal the entire body, and a pretty mound of 

 fresh earth was accumulating beneath it. Probably her 

 work progressed much faster in ttys case because the burrow 

 was a horizontal one and the dirt was merely pushed out 

 instead of being carried out load by load. She did her work 

 so well that we were more than usually sorry to see her 

 destroyed a few minutes later, under the heels of the base- 

 ball players. 



We came upon another hole in the ground which stood 

 open. It ran sloping into the earth, so that while the tunnel 

 was about five inches in length the chamber at the terminus 

 was only about three inches below the surface of the ground. 

 The burrow, while it was open on top, was closed loosely 

 with soil for about one inch, just before it reached the 

 chamber. In the chamber were five beetles, all of one 

 species, Argilus objectus Horn [E. A. Schwarz]. 



The site was badly torn up after we had finished examin- 

 ing it, but we decided to linger near and watch the spot for 

 the returning owner of the nest. After an hour we dis- 

 covered her digging, head first, into the earth that had been 

 dug up, at the precise spot where her nest had been. Close 



