HUNTERS OF LARGE ORTHOPTERA 201 



watching and following members of this species foraging, 

 without once seeing them do anything more than hunt. One 

 could seldom spend even a little while in the field adjoin- 

 ing the brick-yard without seeing one or more of these blue 

 Chlorions foraging among the cinders, but without getting 

 anything. It seems probable that they detect their prey 

 only by the sense of sight, that they prowl about, in their 

 characteristic manner, entering holes and crevices for the 

 purpose of finding prey, and that they are not attracted 

 to certain holes by other powers, such as scent, hearing, 

 etc.; else they would not waste such a vast amount of 

 time on hopelessly fruitless areas. The prey of these wasps 

 is crickets, and the habitat of crickets is never in beds of 

 cinders, some of them freshly dumped and still hot. Yet 

 these wasps go on prowling about every accessible crevice 

 and continue searching long after one's patience and en- 

 durance have been exhausted. Sometimes they enter the 

 same hole many times without finding anything. This would 

 lead one to conclude that they hunt more or less stupidly and 

 that each detail of their actions is devoid of psychological 

 significance ; possibly they are attracted to the cinders by the 

 large number of inviting crannies, and not by any indication 

 of the presence of crickets. 



Two years ago an entire afternoon was spent in watching 

 the similar behavior of these wasps at the foot of a straw- 

 stack. Although they did not, to our knowledge, have the 

 good fortune to capture any crickets, they were more justi- 

 fied in seeking them under wheat straw than in dry cinders. 



One warm morning in Kansas we found a C. cyaneum in 

 a sandy plowed field, hurrying homeward with her cricket, 

 probably a Gryllus abbreviatus Serv. [A. N. Caudell] . She 

 travelled briskly, her cricket apparently no burden, and laid 

 it down only once for a moment. She carried it, head for- 

 ward, under her body, and at one time flew with it for about 



