i;o WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



and struggled forward on her four hind feet. Thus they 

 progressed to the burrow. There she laid it down, with its 

 head at the very brink of the opening; but she left it for 

 only a moment while she stepped inside, turned around and 

 poked her head out just far enough to grasp the hopper by 

 one antenna, and dragged it in. After a brief time, per- 

 haps one-half minute, she came out and immediately com- 

 menced to fill the hole, pausing only to chase a Dipterous 

 parasite that hovered about while she was filling it in. How 

 strange it is that only the filling of the tunnel seems to stim- 

 ulate the fly's desire to enter; she had had abundant oppor- 

 tunity to enter ere this, or even to deposit her eggs on the 

 grasshopper as it lay wholly unprotected, but she seemed to 

 take no interest in the hopper until she was sure the wasp 

 had finished with it. 



While filling and packing in the earth, the wasp stood on 

 her head and pressed down the soil, producing with each 

 stroke the shrill buzz. Next she brought large pellets from 

 a distance and dropped them on the depression. Then, in 

 scratching the dirt back, she worked gradually sidewise, with 

 her face away from the hole, so her path formed a perfect 

 arc of a circle the center of which was the nest. Often she 

 would have to go back to the original spot to get her bear- 

 ings and estimate exactly where to direct her kicks. While 

 thus occupied, without ceremony or warning, she arose and 

 flew away in a straight line. It was then 9 : 30, or forty-five 

 minutes after the time we discovered her. 



We opened the nest. The length of the tunnel down to 

 the grasshopper was five inches. The chamber was no wider 

 than the rest of the burrow and lay horizontally. No earth 

 was in this chamber, and the hopper, with its head to the 

 wall, had ample air space around it. We dug it out and took 

 it home for further observation. It was still alive, but 

 seemed severely stunned, and for the remainder of that 



