HUNTERS OF LARGE ORTHOPTERA 165 



is slight because usually the adult parasites stolidly ignore 

 the prey of wasps while it is left lying idle, but take an 

 interest in it when they see, with surety, that it is going 

 to be buried properly. 



. The next day at 5 : oo p. m., the hopper could still move 

 its mouth-parts and legs, and when stimulated it could flut- 

 ter its wings. In the interval, the parasites had devoured the 

 egg and were entering and feeding upon the body of the 

 grasshopper at the point of attachment of the wasp's egg, at 

 the base of the left hind leg. 



We have never found more than one hopper stored in 

 the burrow of P. atratum. Williams 1 found their prey in 

 Kansas to be a mature Aulocara, Mermiria neomexicana, 

 Melanoplus differentials $ or M. lakinus. 



On one occasion we were so fortunate as to catch the 

 P. atratum in the act of selecting her nesting-place. On that 

 morning, August 30, at 10 o'clock, we found her searching 

 to and fro in the region of her grasshopper, which lay, al- 

 ready paralyzed, on the grass. We should much like to 

 know whether she had brought it here from some distance 

 or whether she had killed it on this spot. We might add 

 here that the Peckhams are evidently mistaken in surmis- 

 ing that the species first prepares the nest and then catches 

 the wherewithal to fill it. In every case when we saw the 

 wasp at work digging, we found the paralyzed hopper near 

 by. This wasp did not come directly to her prey, nor did 

 she at any time wander further than four feet from it. 

 Judging from her manner of hunting here and there over 

 the region, we thought she was seeking her lost quarry until, 

 after examining one bare spot closely for five minutes, she 

 began to dig. This spot was only about eighteen inches 

 from her hopper, but in selecting the site she did not return 

 directly to her prey at any time. 



iKans. Univ. Sci. Bull. 8: 230. 1913. 



