228 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



wasp in her long, hopeless struggle to reach her burrow. 

 The second or foraging wasp became aware of its presence 

 when she was within an inch or two of it, "sniffed all 

 around with her antennae," and at once located it. She 

 did not pounce upon the caterpillar with violence, as we had 

 expected, but paused and examined it closely, running to 

 and fro, eagerly examining first one end and then the other 

 alternately several times, then pinched it in a number of 

 places along the ventral surface, and bit it on the throat close 

 under its head several times so viciously that we thought 

 that she was deliberately decapitating it. Then she released 

 her grip and turned it over, dorsum up, mounted its back 

 and curved her abdomen deftly around it until she planted 

 her sting behind the first pair of pro-legs. The caterpillar, 

 which had heretofore lain motionless, drew up quivering. 

 Then the wasp withdrew and inserted her sting behind the 

 second pair, administering a prolonged and most deliberate 

 sting, and also behind the third and fourth four slow, sure 

 stings. Then she lifted and inquisitively shook its head 

 and then shook its tail a bit, as if to make sure that it was 

 really done for, turned it over on its back, straddled it and, 

 with some difficulty (for it was an exceptionally large and 

 heavy caterpillar), got started with it across the smooth 

 ground. She grasped it with a terrible grip of her mandi- 

 bles, and part of the time with her first legs too. She 

 dragged it in the usual fashion, dorsal side down. Then 

 followed the endless chase; she seemed now to be hunting 

 for her nest in this locality, and sometimes appeared to be 

 preparing to dig as if to uncover it, but it may have been 

 destroyed, or she may have been badly mistaken in her 

 location. She trailed here, there and yonder, sometimes 

 several feet away, and then came back to this vicinity only 

 to wander off again. She ran around so much with that 

 caterpillar that we thought surely it would be worn to shreds 



