50 INSECT BEHAVIOR 



reeds, tiny twigs and woodchips barricade her doorway. Therefore, 

 for convenience sake, I will call her the lumberess. 



The modes 'of life of the two insects are in most respects widely 

 at variance. They build individual types of nests, provision them 

 differently, choose different situations for the home site and go about 

 their respective businesses in separate ways. It is important, how- 

 ever, that the two have a single habit in common. The roach victims 

 of one and the cricket prey of the other are affected in the same man- 

 ner by the stings of the two insects. 



I have before me two crickets of the lumberess and a dozen roaches 

 of the roach-killer. These I collected from the sealed nests of the 

 insects. Therefore, to the best of my knowledge they have been 

 stung by the two wasps. I find in the victims a physical condition 

 entirely different from that existing in the spiders paralyzed by the 

 white-footed wasp. So differently are they affected that I do not 

 consider them paralyzed at all. 



The roaches are capable of moving every pair of legs, they can 

 turn the head from side to side, also move all the mouth parts and 

 their antennae. But strange to say they lie motionless unless I touch 

 them with a needle or the tip of my pencil. I place one of the roaches 

 upon its feet. It lies absolutely still as though dead until I touch 

 one of the protruding appendages at the posterior end of its body. 

 As I do so it jumps forward without much effort, in the act, using 

 each pair of legs. Now it waves its antennae back and forth for a 

 few seconds, wriggles its mouth and settles back into its torpor. With 

 the crickets I try a similar experiment with the same result. Much 

 the same thing appears to take place in these victims as one observes 

 in a sleeping dog, whose foot has been tickled with a straw. It is 

 quite peaceful and unconscious, yet its nerves and muscles respond 

 automatically to rid the animal of its annoyer. 



Certainly then, the insects are not paralyzed at this time, any 



