THE SPIDER RAVISHERS. 153, 



utes, then came back and, taking a look at the spider, passed 

 on toward the east and began to run about on the ground as 

 though she were looking for something. At length she started 

 a fresh nest, about eight feet from the first one. She dug slowly 

 but persistently, working more like fuscipennis than any other 

 of the Pompilidae, turning around and around in the tunnel 

 so that her back was sometimes up .ind sometimes down. As 

 a result of this method her hole was perfectly circular. After 

 twenty minutes, when she had gone in rather more than her 

 own length, she flew to her spider, which she found without 

 any trouble, seized it by one leg and ran rapidly backward with 

 it directly toward the nest. When within ten inches she 

 dropped it and hurried on to see if everything were right, re- 

 turned, picked it up again, and carried it to within two inches, 

 where it was left while she took one more look. Everything 

 was in order, and seizing the spider she backed in with it and 

 disappeared. After two minutes she came out and began to cut 

 away the earth near the entrance and to push it in, and then, 

 after a little, to fill the hole with the dirt that had been taken 

 out, which she pushed down with her legs. The whole opera- 

 tion occupied about forty-five minutes but before she was quite 

 done we caught her and opened the nest This proved to be 

 only a little more than an inch deep with a slight enlargement 

 at the bottom. The spider was dead and exuded a fluid from 

 its mouth. The egg was placed on the right side of the ab- 

 domen, near the middle. Forty-eight hours later it looked as- 

 if just ready to hatch but at this point it died. 



Pompilus scelestus Cresson. 



At eleven o'clock on the morning of a warm day in the mid- 

 dle of August we saw this steel-blue Pompilm dragging a big 

 Lycosid across a field. The spider was 16 mm. long and wide 

 in proportion while the wasp was but 13 -mm, long and very 

 slender, so that the weight of the spider was at least three times 

 that of its captor. The necessity for going backward was evi- 

 dent in this case, but the wasp moved rapidly considering the 



