AMMOPHILA AND HER CATERPILLARS. 23 



brought a quantity of fine grains of dirt to the spot and pick- 

 ing up a small pebble in her mandibles, used it as a hammer 

 in pounding them down with rapid strokes, thus making this 

 spot as hard and firm as the surrounding surface. (Plate Y.) 

 Before we could recover from our astonishment at this perfor- 

 mance she had dropped her stone and was bringing more earth. 

 We then threw ourselves down on the ground that not a motion 

 might be lost, and in a moment we saw her pick up the pebble 

 and again pound the earth into place with it, hammering now 

 here and now there until all was level. Once more the whole 

 process was repeated, and then the little creature, all unconscious 

 of the commotion that she had aroused in our minds, uncon- 

 scious, indeed, of our very existence and intent only on doing 

 her work and doing it well, gave one final, comprehensive 

 glance around and flew away. 



We are claiming a great deal for Ammophila when we say 

 that she improvised a tool and made intelligent use of it, for 

 such actions are rare even among the higher mammals, but for- 

 tunately our observation does not stand alone, although we sup- 

 posed this to be the case at the time that it was made. Some 

 weeks later, seeing a note of a similar occurrence by Dr. S. W. 

 Williston, of Kansas University, we wrote to him on the sub- 

 ject. In his reply he said that he had waited for a year before 

 venturing to publish his observation, fearing that so remarkable 

 a statement would not be credited. His account* is so interest- 

 ing that we quote it at length. 



NOTE ON THE HABITS OF AMMOPHILA. 



By S. W. Williston, Lawrence, Kan. 



Even the casual observer, to whom all insects are bugs, cannot help 

 but be struck by the great diversity and number of the fossorial Hy- 

 menoptera of the plains. Water is often inaccessible, trees there are few 

 or none, and only in places is the vegetation at all abundant. A much 

 larger proportion of insects, hence, find it necessary to live or breed 

 in holes in the ground, than is the case in more favored localities. Es- 

 pecially is this the case with the Hymenoptera, great numbers and 



*Entomological News, Vol. III., 1892, p. 85. 



