212 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



that, but each time when it would not go in she would lay 

 it aside and dig the hole deeper, or at least enlarge the cham- 

 ber at the bottom. At last, in another attempt, she dragged 

 it in after her, but it became lodged when only one-eighth 

 of it was protruding hence she could neither push it out 

 nor herself escape. We waited for a time and saw that the 

 situation only meant death to her, so we came to her assist- 

 ance. (Thus our humanity! If she had been alone with 

 Nature she would not have left any posterity perhaps to per- 

 petuate her stupidity!) We pulled it out with forceps but 

 already the Dipterous parasites which had been lurking 

 nearby had done their deadly work, for a half-dozen squirm- 

 ing larvae were at the neck of the caterpillar. As it was 

 pulled out, some of these were brushed off and fell down 

 into the hole. She showed neither anger nor surprise at 

 the assistance that had been rendered to her, but she ap- 

 peared satisfied with the disposition of her property. She 

 came out and picked up a large, firm pellet, took it down 

 into the hole with her and remained quite a while, brought 

 it up for a moment, then returned with it and remained 

 inside for another period. Then she came out once more, 

 threw this pellet aside and gathered a half-dozen other 

 smaller ones, which she took down into the burrow. Oh, if 

 we but could have seen what she was doing with them down 

 there in her dark chamber! Did she use the first large one 

 to kill the parasites which infested her nest? Or did she 

 instinctively feel that it was now time to bring in material 

 for the partition or plug at the entrance to the chamber? 

 Hardly the latter, because when she emerged, she promptly 

 dragged her caterpillar in again as if nothing had happened. 

 This time she succeeded in getting it a trifle lower, so the 

 rear end was level with the surface of the earth; then she 

 seemed to encounter the same difficulty as before. Five 

 minutes elapsed, and she could move it neither down nor up. 



