194 INTELLIGENCE IN INSECTS 
place in essentially the same way as the homing of carrier 
pigeons, and involves an acquaintance with the locality 
gained by previous exploration. The Peckhams found that 
solitary wasps before their first departure from the nest 
make elaborate “locality studies,” circling around the nest 
in wider and wider courses and at the same time flying higher 
and higher in the air. Speaking of an Ammophila which 
for some time previously had been exploring a garden in 

Fig. 13.—A locality study of the wasp Sphex. (After Peckham.) 
search of a place to dig a nest, the Peckhams say, “ At last 
a spot is selected and she begins to dig, but two or three 
times before the work is completed she goes away for a 
short flight. When it is done, and covered over, she flies 
away, but returns again and again within the next few hours 
to look at the spot and, perhaps, to make some little altera- 
tion in her arrangements. From this time on, until the 
caterpillars are stored and the egg laid, she visits her nest 
several times a day, so that she becomes perfectly familiar 
with the neighborhood, and it is not surprising, after all, 
that she is able to carry her prey from any point in her 
