98 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



Astata Leuthstromii Ashmead. 



It was on the fourteenth day of July that we saw this new 

 species which is a little longer than bicolor and dark in color. 

 The wasp stood with her head peeping out of a hole that seemed 

 too large for it, and occasionally scrambled on the edges with 

 her fore feet as though she were trying to get out, although it 

 may be that her object was to draw loose dirt down into the 

 hole. There was no heap of earth around the place as with 

 the nest of bicolor. After a little the wasp came out and flew 

 away but returned, without a load, in ten minutes, and after 

 alighting and walking about for a while, flirting her wings as 

 she moved, went in and closed the door. It was now three in 

 the afternoon, and she did not open the nest until a little before 

 nine on the following morning. The place was shaded and 

 perhaps for this reason she did not go out at once, but she came 

 up every few minutes and looked about, not jerking her head 

 this way and that as is characteristic of some of our wasps, but 

 frequently wiping in a little dust with her antennae. 



At the end of an hour she flew away without circling. In 

 ten minutes she came back, flying lightly although she carried 

 a bug in her mandibles, and after alighting for a moment on a 

 blade of grass, flew into her nest, passing her burden backward 

 as she entered so that for an instant it projected behind her. 



Fearing that we might lose our wasp if we let her go again 

 we captured her as she came out, and excavated the place, but 

 failed to trace the nest or to find the hidden treasure. 



