1 66 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



The earth was moist and she dug rapidly, carrying out 

 large mouthfuls of dirt as she emerged backwards from the 

 hole, dropping it near the brink and flinging it back under 

 her body and out of the way with her forelegs. When the 

 dirt had accumulated near the hole so as to form a slight 

 obstruction, she would come out and kick the whole pile 

 away to a distance where it would cause no further annoy- 

 ance. During the next period we timed her; she usually 

 took out five loads of earth a minute, and occasionally six. 



After ten minutes of her faithful digging, the hole was 

 deep enough to include her whole body; then her mind 

 turned back to her hopper and she started out in quest of it. 

 Her manner of locating it was interesting to watch; first 

 she walked in the direction of the prey but a little to one 

 side and missed it ; when some distance beyond it she turned 

 and came back but passed it again. Then she took a short 

 flight but went too far and landed beyond it again; then 

 another return flight brought her only slightly past it once 

 more, and from there she walked a few steps to it. She 

 mounted it and trundled it half-way to her hole, where she 

 left it on top of a thick clump of grass, and resumed her 

 digging for another quarter of an hour. Once more she 

 moved her hopper nearer to the hole; this time she had no 

 trouble at all in finding it, but walked straight to it. When 

 she brought it near to the hole, we felt sure that she had 

 the burrow almost ready for it, for these wasps have a way 

 of gradually moving their booty nearer and nearer as the 

 work on the burrow progresses, until it arrives at its destin- 

 ation just as the hole is completed. Why do all of the 

 Priononyx- persist in digging awhile and then bringing their 

 prey closer, several times before its final burial, when they 

 might as well bring it all the way at one trip? Do the 

 wasps grow anxious about the welfare of their prey? 

 Hardly, or they would bring it at one trip clear to their place 



