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HUNTERS OF SMALL ORTHOPTERA 155 



field for wasps when an open hole on a gently sloping little 

 bank, with a number of little chips of earth on the slope 

 beneath the hole, betrayed the presence of a nest oi.N. argen^ 

 tata. The mother wasp soon appeared upon the scene; she 

 had probably been frightened away by. our approach. She 

 had already begun closing the hole, but we were happy to 

 have discovered the nest in time to see her put in the dirt 

 filling. She worked by kicking in the loose soil near the 

 mouth of the hole with her front legs, and then, with the 

 ventral part of the abdomen, she would tamp it down and rub 

 it smooth with a slow, grinding, circular motion. Before 

 the hole was quite completed we took her, lest she should 

 escape and we should lose her identity, so we did not see the 

 final ceremonies of the closure of the nest. Another N. ar- 

 gentata in closing her hole first fetched a small cinder and 

 took it down into the burrow, and then repeatedly kicked 

 loose dirt in upon it until the hole was full. We should like 

 much to know whether these wasps usually finish off their 

 burrows with bits of rubbish, or whether the individual 

 previously described modified her usual habit and carried 

 debris because her loose dirt had rolled away where she could 

 not get it. Perhaps her work was rendered more difficult in 

 that case by the gummy condition of the earth after a 

 heavy rain. 



The opening of the hole was about three-eighths inch 

 in diameter; it went down for one inch and terminated 

 in a chamber one-fourth inch in diameter. This con- 

 tained four cricketts, all Gryllus pennsylvanicus $ s, three 

 large and one small, although all were mature. The wasp's 

 egg was attached to the one nearest the top, probably the 

 last one brought in. It was fastened to the ventral side 

 of the thorax, nestling very nicely between the first and 

 second pairs of legs. We could hardly believe that the 

 crickets had been stung when we saw how they hopped out 



