AMMOPHILA AND HER CATERPILLARS. 27 



four o'clock, and we had been following her since two. We 

 watched over the caterpillar for an hour longer, but saw no more 

 of the wasp. 



Did she become discouraged at the magnitude of her task? 

 It would have been a thousand times easier for her to have dug 

 her nest close by the place of capture, but perhaps she had one 

 larva already stored with her egg upon it. The caterpillar was 

 carried two hundred and sixty-one feet while we watched her, 

 with an unknown distance at each end to complete the line be- 

 tween the place of capture and the nest. She could scarcely 

 have lost her way since at every return she proceeded on her 

 journey in one general direction without any hesitation. It 

 seems probable then, that she had hunted too far afield and did 

 not realize, when she started with her booty, what an undertak- 

 ing it would be to carry it to her nest. 



The affairs of Ammophila must frequently go wrong, since in 

 still another of our few examples we saw much trouble and labor 

 wasted. The wasp, in this case an urnaria, captured her cater- 

 pillar successfully and proceeded to carry it off. She was far 

 from being in a hurry, going along for a foot or so and then 

 making a long pause, during which she would lay it down and 

 either circle above it, perhaps to take bearings, or spend the 

 time in cleaning herself off, stroking and smoothing every part 

 of her body with the utmost care and deliberation. Her btops 

 were so frequent and so lengthy that nearly an hour was occu- 

 pied in going about twenty-five feet. When, at last, the nest 

 was reached, the plug was removed from the entrance and the 

 caterpillar dragged in, but almost immediately the wasp came 

 out backwards with the point of an egg projecting from the ex- 

 tremity of her abdomen. She ran around and around the nest 

 in a distracted way four or five times and then went back r 

 dragged the caterpillar out, and carried it away. The egg came 

 out further and further, and finally dropped on the ground and 

 was lost. The wasp, carrying the caterpillar, led us a long 

 dance, in a great semicircle over the field, coming back to the 

 nest at last. Instead of going in, however, she was about to 



