156 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



task she had undertaken was too heavy for her accomplishment 

 that at her present rate of progress her strength would be ex- 

 hausted before she could reach her goal. At any rate some- 

 thing was wrong. The spider was left unprotected on the 

 ground while she made a number of long excursions without it,, 

 sometimes being gone as much as fifteen minutes. On coming 

 back from these trips she would return to the task of squeezing 

 the legs with such energy and persistence that we expected to 

 see them drop off. Then she would run over the ground in 

 all directions, looking under lumps of earth and stones and pok- 

 ing her head into every little hole. Was she trying to find 

 some suitable spot near at hand to take the place of the one 

 which she had prepared or selected at a distance? 



Diagram of road over which spider was carried by P. scelestus. 



One hour from the time of her arrival at this place, and two 

 hours from the time that we began to watch her,, she flew away 

 and was gone for an unusually long time. We can only sup- 

 pose that when she absented herself in this way she was visiting 

 the spot to which she wished to convey her booty. On her 

 return she seemed to be filled with a new idea, for after climb- 

 ing to the top of a tall stout weed that grew near by, she came 

 down, seized the spider, and tried to drag it up the stem. Per- 

 haps she meant to lift it to such an elevation that she could 

 fly with it, but it was too heavy for her and fell after she had 

 raised it to a height of three inches. She then flew away again, 

 and on her return we caught her, fearing that she was becom- 

 ing discouraged and that she might presently depart to be seen 

 no more. Had there been any prospect of her solving the dif- 

 ficulty that beset her our patience might have held out to the 



