336 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



burrow, replaced it with the others and continued for some 

 time arranging and packing them. 



One day one of these wasps, carrying a green caterpillar 

 under her body, was seen to enter one of the holes in a log. 

 After all efforts to dig it out had proved vain, we re- 

 moved the log from the pile and, with great effort, shook 

 the caterpillar from the hole. It was not dead, but re- 

 sponded to stimuli. On another occasion an O. foraminatus 

 was carrying home, under her body, a Gnorimo schema gal- 

 loesolidaginis [S. B. Fracker], while just beneath the mouth 

 of her burrow in the log was another, a Loxostege sp.^ 

 probably similalis [S. B. Fracker], caught in a spider's web, 

 where she had evidently dropped it. 



This old log-heap formed an excellent habitat for the 

 longicorn beetles, and many of them had, at some time or 

 another, taken advantage of the conditions and made their 

 burrows there. For a long time, we took it for granted 

 that these wasps used the deserted holes made by these 

 powerful beetles, for it was almost incredible that so deli- 

 cate a little creature could cut deep, smooth holes in oaken 

 logs which broke one blade after another of a heavy pocket- 

 knife. But one day we found one surely carving out her 

 own hole. She would enter head-first and soon back out 

 and drop a little load of fresh saw-dust on the ground. She 

 worked faithfully and steadily, but her burrow was already 

 so deep that we could not see her method of cutting the 

 wood. She proceeded quietly, as if modestly unaware that 

 she was doing something truly marvellous. This must 

 have been about their hole-cutting time, for on that day 

 (July 22), we found a dozen similar holes in the logs, all 

 newly-cut, although we did not intercept any other wasps 

 at work on them. 



We have commented elsewhere upon the remarkable lack 

 of dissemination among many wasps. Generation after 



