DOOR-STEP NEIGHBORS 



71 



31 ' i 



cle of ceremony, she instantly retreats, dragging 

 her helpless burden after her. Both wasp and 

 spider are soon out of sight, and so remain per- 

 haps for a space of two minutes, when the tips of 

 the nervous antennae appear at the doorway and 

 the wasp emerges. What now follows is most 

 curious and interesting. With an energy and di- 

 rectness in striking contrast to 

 her previous proceedings, she pro 

 ceeds to fill the cavity, bit- 

 ing the earth with her man- 

 dibles, and with her spiked 

 legs kicking and shoving 

 in the loose soil thus col- 

 lected, ever and anon back- 

 ing up to the hole and insert- 

 ing the tip of her tail to force 

 down the mass. As the filling 

 is nearly completed, with the 

 fore feet and jaws the surround- 

 ing earth is scraped for material, which she imme- 

 diately proceeds to pack by a rhythmic tamping 

 motion of the tail, until, at the end of five min- 

 utes, perhaps, the ground-level is finally reached, 

 the surface smoothed, and no sign remains to 

 mark the grave of the stupefied spider victim. 

 Not an hour after this episode I was treated to 



