THE ENEMIES OF THE ORTHOPTERA. 169 



elapses between the laying of the egg and the spinning of the 

 cocoon makes it a matter of indifference whether the grass- 

 hopper is alive or dead, since in any case it would be eaten be- 

 fore decomposition set in. 



Lyroda subita Say. 



In our summer work we often found ourselves wishing that 

 we could be in half a dozen places, at once and could chase sev- 

 eral wasps at the same time, and never did we feel these desires 

 more keenly than on the twenty-ninth of July, when, after 

 spending the best part of an hour in watching the hunting of 

 an Ammophila we were obliged to choose between following 

 her to a possible conclusion, and giving our attention to a little 

 black wasp which we now saw for the first time. This wasp 

 was running around a bunch of clover in a nervous, agitated 

 manner, as though she were oppressed by some great anxiety. 

 The chance of discovering something entirely new decided us 

 to relinquish our Ammophiline hopes and we sat down at the 

 feet of our new teacher. 



We could not see anything remarkable about that bunch of 

 clover but certainly the spot had some strong attraction for the 

 uneasy little wasp. She ran off first in one direction and then 

 in another. She circled about and made short flights now this 

 way and now that, but always returned. At last she betrayed 

 the secret of her interest by descending to the ground and pick- 

 ing up a small black cricket which had been lying close by all 

 the time. She flew up into the air with it but even now did 

 not leave the neighborhood, continuing to fly about from place 

 to place, alighting now and again on the bean plants. 



After this performance had lasted for five minutes she 

 brought her burden back to the same spot that it had occupied 

 before, laid it down, and without vouchsafing to us any expla- 

 nation of her conduct, began to burrow into the soft earth. 

 She went down head first, backing out with the dirt, which she 

 carried with the front legs. While she was thus occupied we 



