HUNTERS OF LARGE ORTHOPTERA 181 



and attempted another at a spot ten feet distant and aban- 

 doned that also ; a little later she commenced a third burrow 

 about five feet from the second. This last location seemed 

 to offer more favorable conditions. Here the wasp worked 

 diligently among the cinders, and in ten minutes had dug 

 a hole the length of her body, with an opening one-half 

 inch wide. This was good work, considering the difficulties 

 of digging in packed cinders. It seems that this species has 

 a liking for cinders, for the other that we saw worked in 

 the same material despite the fact that only a small propor- 

 tion of the available area was covered with it. 



The blue wasp, C. cyaneum, which was foraging under a 

 brick-pile near by, annoyed her twice by entering her open 

 burrow ; but since she entered every hole and crevice in the 

 brick-pile and cinders, this was probably only an accident. 



This P. thomae followed the same technique in her work 

 as P. atratum: she would carry up the soil, cinders, etc., with 

 her mouth, back out with the load and drop it near the orifice 

 without turning around, and run in again, head first, soon 

 to emerge in the same mechanical manner, like a little toy 

 wound up with a spring. When the debris had accumulated 

 so as to be annoying, she paused long enough to rapidly kick 

 and brush it all together, in a neat little heap, some distance 

 away. 



After she had dug down about the distance of her own 

 body-length, she turned to a horizontal direction and ex- 

 cavated the chamber. Thus the ceiling of the chamber, 

 when completed, was only about a half -inch beneath the 

 surface of the ground. The opening was large enough to 

 permit us easily to see her moving about inside. 



After a half-hour's arduous work, she came out of her 



. burrow and slowly walked about in the immediate vicinity 



of her nest. We thought she was getting her landmarks 



preparatory to bringing her booty home. Her slow and 



