64 INSECT BEHAVIOR 



of the insect whose nest I found upon the brick pillar strengthened 

 this evidence. This wasp never returned directly to her nest at the 

 outset, but at the same time never alighted with her burden more 

 than a full twelve inches from it. From such a position she would' 

 walk about in a zigzag course, until at length the brick bearing 

 the nest was reached. Once this "home brick" was located, the insect 

 would walk straight to her nest. The dauber returns to the general 

 locality without much difficulty, but actually to reach the cells she 

 must feel about with curled antennae, and depend upon smell rather 

 than a mere sense of direction. 



To build a cell, including its foundation, requires between seventy 

 and eighty loads of mortar. The freshly made nursery weighs about 

 seven and two-thirds grams, but by the time it is ready to receive 

 provisions, evaporation has reduced it to three. From these figures 

 I conclude that to build a nest containing ten cells requires some 

 seven hundred pellets of mud. In accomplishing her task the tireless, 

 energetic mason carries 1,000 times her own weight in mortar and 

 fashions it grain by grain into the abode for her progeny. 



In storing her cells, the dauber shows a varied taste. I have before 

 me two open cells. One contains two large fat spiders that easily 

 fill the storeroom, the other is stored with a variety of victims, nine 

 in all, including many grades of size and color. In these two cells I 

 have at least two genera and five different species of paralyzed 

 spiders. 



Upon the side of the abdomen of the largest one in each cell, the 

 wasp deposits a pale yellowish white egg, then she seals the nursery 

 entrance with a few pellets of mortar and abandons the nest for good. 



In seventy-two hours the egg hatches, or I should say, comes to 

 life. Here is a strange process. Watching the erstwhile egg through 

 the lens, a spasm suddenly takes place within its film-like shell, which 

 is nearly transparent and allows a fairly clear view of what takes 



