134 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



again. She fought so well for her ill-gotten treasure, however, 

 that she finally conquered the other and hurried off with her 

 prize. She showed by her manner that she felt the need of 

 haste, for instead of laying the spider down and looking at the 

 nest, she dragged it directly in, as though she feared another at- 

 tack. This was the first time that we had ever seen these wasps 

 fighting over their prey and we were surprised to find that they 

 would take spiders which they had not captured themselves, 

 since when we had tried to exchange with them they , had re- 

 fused to carry out our scheme. This was clearly an intelligent 

 (immoral?) act and could not be an affair of instinct. 



Once again we witnessed a similar struggle. One of these 

 wasps was laboriously dragging her strix up a steep hillside 

 when a much bigger one of the same species descended upon 

 her and seized the spider. She was loth to give it up and they 

 both pulled until it seemed as though the poor creature would 

 be dismembered. The highway robber came off victorious and 

 after flying to a distance hung the spider up while she finished 

 a partly made nest, and tnen stored it away. It may be said in 

 extenuation of her conduct that since she had a nest started she 

 had probably been robbed herself, and therefore felt that she 

 was entitled to a spider. 



The nests of quinquenotatus vary considerably according to 

 the kind of soil in which they are made, the firm clay of the gar- 

 den giving a result quite different from the fine dry earth of the 

 island, in which they are usually much larger and scarcely to be 

 distinguished from the holes of Bembex spinolae. In both lo- 

 calities, however, the nest consisted of a short tunnel, running 

 obliquely downward, with a slight enlargement at the end, but 

 with no change in the direction of the gallery. (Plate X., 

 % 6.) 



In the loose sand of a steep hillside we found that the wasps 

 had a different method. Their tunnels in this place, filled up 

 nearly as fast as they could dig them, and when they had 

 reached a depth of half an inch they turned off at a right angle, 



