62 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



last she made up her mind as to the spot where the entrance had 

 been and began to loosen the earth with her mandibles. It re- 

 quired a good deal of digging and sweeping to open up the gal- 

 lery but she finally succeeded. 



A curious thing about these wasps, and one which shows how 

 much common feeling they have, is that they work in waves, 

 #11 starting off on their hunting expeditions within a few min- 

 utes of each other, and returning together after the chase. At 

 one time all the residents seem to be present, digging their nests, 

 carrying in their booty, dashing at each other and chasing the 

 parasites with a tremendous amount of humming and swoop- 

 ing about. Then suddenly they are all gone. Nothing remains 

 but multitudes of flies which keep up a giddy dance over the 

 field, and for ten or fifteen minutes the place seems deserted. 

 Then the wasps begin to return, several coming at a time, and 

 as if by magic the whole scene awakens to life. More than 

 half of the wasps bring nothing home with them, and these fall 

 to robbing their more fortunate companions. Those that are 

 -carrying flies must pause a moment, burdened as they are, to 

 scratch away the earth at the entrance to the nest. When un- 

 molested they go in very quickly, but it is just at this point that 

 the marauders fall upon them, displaying an amount of per- 

 sistence and energy in their attacks that, were it properly di- 

 rected, might easily enable them to secure flies for themselves. 



We once saw a wasp that had been fortunate enough, or 

 perhaps unfortunate enough, to catch an immense fly, the wings 

 of which stood out on both sides very conspicuously. This 

 made her an especial mark for her unprincipled relatives. Half 

 a dozen of them chased her about like chickens pursuing one 

 of their number that has found a worm. She circled and set- 

 tled and circled and swooped around for five or six minutes, 

 continually pursued and attacked by the robbers, and quite un- 

 able to get into her nest. At last, curious to see what she was 

 carrying, we made her drop the fly and secured it for ourselves. 

 We found it to be T&hamis atratus. It was quite dead but 



