156 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



of the nest as soon as it was opened, and even at ten o'clock 

 that night all of them could walk or hop with alacrity upon 

 slight stimulation. Judging from the fact that the egg was 

 on the top cricket and the wasp was closing the nest when 



iFiG. 35. Notogonidea argentata and her burrow. Natural size. 



we arrived, we can safely estimate that the egg was laid 

 between i and i : 30 p. m. 



On the evening of the next day, the crickets were all as- 

 tonishingly lively ; the one bearing the egg ran and hopped 

 clear across the table when the box was opened. After 

 four days imprisonment, they were a little subdued and 

 seldom walked about in the box. By the evening of the 

 27th, five and a quarter days after the closing of the nest, 

 the smallest cricket was growing lethargic, and by the 2Qth 

 all but the largest which bore the egg were dead, and it too 

 seemed almost gone. The egg never hatched. 



Ashmead 8 says, under the name of Larra argentata, that in 

 the south this insect stores as many as six immature crickets, 

 which she completely paralyzes. The way the crickets here 

 jump out of the nests when they are opened readily shows 

 that the Missouri wasps very incompletely paralyze their 

 prey. 



Figure 35 shows another nest in course of construction 



8 Psyche 7: 63. 1896. 



