AMMOPH1LA AND HER CATERPILLARS. 13 



Our conclusions, then, as to Ammophila's methods of sting- 

 ing agree fairly well with those of Fabre. There is, however, 

 one important exception. In his cases the middle segments, 

 upon one of which the egg is laid in our species as well as in his, 

 were invariably stung, and this he considers a point of extreme 

 importance. In one of our cases the middle segments were not 

 touched. 



The point in which our observations differ most widely from 

 those of Fabre is in the condition of the caterpillars after the 

 stinging. He seems to have found that they always lived a long 

 time but in a motionless or nearly motionless state, and he 

 dwells at length upon the necessity of both of these conditions 

 since he believes that while the wasp larva must have perfectly 

 fresh food, any violent motion would imperil its safety. As a 

 matter of fact we found a wide variation in the thoroughness 

 with which the wasps performed their task. We had, in all, 

 fifteen caterpillars upon which urnarm had worked her will, 

 and while a few of them fulfilled to a nicety the conditions which 

 Fabre believes to be imperative, most of them were far from 

 doing so. Some of them lived only three days, others a little 

 longer, while still others showed signs of life at the end of two 

 weeks. L'rnaria stores two caterpillars and in more than one 

 instance the second one died and became discolored before the 

 first one. was entirely eaten. The wasp larva did not, as might 

 have been expected, find fault with this arrangement, but pro- 

 ceeded to attack number two with good appetite, ate it all up, and 

 then spun its cocoon as though nothing unpleasant had occurred. 



The second condition was also violated. In one case the bite 

 of the newly hatched larva caused the caterpillar to rear upon 

 end in so violent a manner that it looked as though the little 

 creature would surely be dislodged. Another caterpillar kept 

 up a continuous wriggling without any external stimulation and 



sun at its hottest, while she was in the full fervor of hunting 1 , and of- 

 fering- her the caterpillars that she preferred above all others, the fact 

 of imprisonment was the only one present to her consciousness, and 

 she never ceased in her restless endeavors to escape. 



