148 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



other. All seemed satisfactory for she went back for the spider 

 and after the usual amount of fluttering to and fro between it and 

 the hole, brought it into the hiding place. Then she came out 

 and began to hunt far and wide. All about the place she went, 

 over a circle of thirty feet in diameter, her manner bespeaking 

 the utmost anxiety and hurry. Twice she visited her spider to 

 see if all were well. Finally, ten feet up the hillside, she ran 

 into an opening among some stones, staid a few minutes, hur- 

 ried down the hill and dragged the spider up toward this new 

 Testing-place. On the way she dropped it and hunted around 

 in great agitation until she found it again. At last she disap- 

 peared with it under the stones. After watching the place for 



Diagram of road over which a spider was carried by P. marginatus. 

 The wasp was first seen at A ; B, C and D are the spots at which the 

 spider was hidden while she hunted about for a final resting place. 



nearly an hour we went away for a time, confidently expecting 

 that when we returned we should find the spider with an egg 

 upon it, but we had been deceived. On our return the hole 

 was empty, and we concluded that it had been only another 

 resting-place, the third, on her homeward march. The dia- 

 gram of the road over which the spider was carried may aid in 

 giving an idea of her movements. 



Our fifth specimen of marginatus had caught a small Thom- 

 isid which she held in her mandibles entirely off the ground, 

 walking backwards, nevertheless, as if she were dragging it. 

 Unlike any of the others that we had seen, instead of hiding 

 the spider in a hole or under something on the ground, she car- 

 ried it up into a purslane plant and hung it there. After 

 some hunting she came back and carried it a little way, and 



