

THE SAND-LOVING AMMOPHILA 211 



many other members of this genus use more than one cater- 

 pillar, and naturally have to return to the hole repeatedly. 

 Perhaps in pictipennis this habit is a vestige of the time when 

 she too used more than one caterpillar and must therefore 

 have an established nesting-site. 



After she arrives in the general region of her nest, there 

 often ensues a long search for the exact location. She 

 wanders here, there and yonder, dragging her booty with 

 her. She seldom lays it down or leaves it; perhaps this is 

 to guard it the more constantly from the parasites which are 

 usually following. But occasionally, when her search has 

 gone on in vain for a discouragingly long time, she will leave 

 it w r hile she hunts for the burrow, after which she usually 

 searches as clumsily again for her caterpillar. Sometimes 

 she hunts for an hour or more for her burrow, and occa- 

 sionally she is utterly unable to find it and gives up, aban- 

 doning both prey and nest. 



When finally she arrives at the nest all in readiness and 

 waiting, it takes her only a moment to remove the plug and 

 enter backwards, dragging the caterpillar after her. There 

 is none of the monotonous performance we see in some 

 species of wasps of digging at the hole a few minutes, then 

 going and examining the prey, then digging more, etc. 

 Many times it appeared to us that the hole was surely too 

 small to receive so large an object; but the wasp judged 

 better than we, for in every case it was large enough, with 

 only one exception. This case of abnormal behavior is per- 

 haps interesting enough to warrant narration. 



We came upon the scene of an unusual performance in 

 the life of Ammophila the wasp had left the caterpillar 

 lying beside the hole while she was digging the burrow 

 deeper. It was a large caterpillar, and very fat. At length 

 she essayed to take it in, but it was too large for the open- 

 ing. She tried various ways, and yanked it this way and 



