THE EUMENIDAE 307 



with safety. In this instance we dug up the whole nest in 

 a lump of earth, leaving the arrangement intact, so the 

 fragile larva dropped to the food-mass below. 



An interesting little experiment on the homing of O. 

 geminits was carried on. We had thought that the little 

 chimney might be of service to the wasp by aiding her to 

 locate her hole upon her return to the nest. One turret 

 was kicked away by an animal, but she showed no more 

 confusion in locating her nest when the chimney was gone 

 than when it stood at its full height. 



For our own convenience, on the first day we marked one 

 turret with a piece of paper an inch square pinned to the 

 earth beside the hole. This was of course very conspicu- 

 ous on the bare ground, and we wondered if it might have 

 anything to do with the perfect ease with which, for three 

 days, the mother wasp unfailingly came straight to her nest. 

 So, while she was away for water, we moved the paper to 

 a point three inches away from the nest, in the direction 

 from which she always came with water. When she re- 

 turned, she alighted very near to the paper, paused, walked 

 around it, took a short flight and again alighted on the paper 

 and for five minutes seemed interested solely in the paper. 

 Then she arose for another brief flight, during which we 

 hastened to replace the paper in its original position beside 

 the burrow, and stepped back; she immediately alighted on 

 the spot and continued her work, as if nothing had hap- 

 pened. Whether she found her nest by aid of the short 

 flight or by the guidance of the paper cannot be determined 

 positively, but this much is certain: that she returned to 

 the paper twice, and then gave it five minutes of her atten- 

 tion because it was associated with her nest, and, even 

 though her home was only three inches away, she was com- 

 pelled to take a second flight of orientation in order to 

 locate it. 



