HUNTERS OF SMALL ORTHOPTERA 141 



in length from one and one-half to four inches; the few that 

 we found completed terminated in a little oval pocket (see 

 illustration, fig. 33), which was merely the end of the chan- 

 nel slightly widened into oval form. 



We did not chance at any time to find a cell already filled 



FIG. 33. Alyson melleus, her burrow and prey. Natural size. 



with provisions at the end of an open burrow, but in the 

 earth nearby we found, on mere than one occasion, little 

 cells whose connection could not be traced. These were the 

 terminal cells of other nearby nests whose channels had 

 been closed. The first of these isolated cells was packed 

 tightly with a number of leaf-hoppers. There were about 

 a dozen of these frail creatures, so delicate that we could not 

 handle them even with forceps, but with a straw we gently 

 brushed them into a vial. They exhibited no signs of life 

 and truly we cannot see how such frail organisms could sur- 

 vive even the handling of the wasps, much less their sting. 

 Twenty hours later, when we examined the hoppers, which 

 we had placed in a sealed vial, every one was shrivelled and 

 hard, so desiccated that a delicate larva could hardly derive 

 any nourishment from them. This discovery suggested a 



