AMMOPHILA AND HER CATERPILLARS. 11 



From this instant there was a complete cessation of movement 

 on the part of the unfortunate caterpillar. Limp and helpless, 

 it could offer no further opposition to the will of its conqueror. 

 For some moments the wasp remained motionless, and then, 

 withdrawing her sting, she plunged it successively between the 

 third and the second, and between the second and the first seg- 

 ments. (Plate IV.) 



The caterpillar was now left lying on the ground. For a 

 moment the wasp circled above it and then, descending, seized 

 it again, further back this time, and with great deliberation and 

 nicety of action gave it four more stings, beginning between the 

 ninth and tenth segments and progressing backward. 



Urnaria, probably feeling as we certainly did a reaction 

 from the strain of the last few minutes, and a relief at the com- 

 pletion of her task, now rested from her labors. Standing on 

 the ground close by she proceeded to smooth her body with her 

 long hind legs, standing in the meantime, almost on her head, 

 with her abdomen directed upward. She then gave her face 

 a thorough washing and rubbing with her first legs, and not 

 until she had made a complete and satisfactory toilet did she re- 

 turn to the caterpillar. 



We saw Ammophila capture her prey only three times during 

 the whole summer, but from these observations and from the 

 condition of her caterpillars taken at various times from nests, 

 her method seems to be wonderfully close to that of hirsuta, 

 with just about the same amount of variation in different indi- 

 viduals. 



Thus in our second example, she stung the first three seg- 

 ments in the regular order, the third, the second, and lastly (and 

 most persistently) the first. She then went on, without a pause, 

 to sting the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, stopping at this 

 point and leaving the posterior segments untouched. In our 

 first example, it will be remembered, the middle segments were 

 spared. The stinging being completed, she proceeded to the 

 process known as malaxaticm, which consists in repeatedly 

 squeezing the neck of the caterpillar, or other victim, between 



