174 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



When she came out, at the end of five minutes, we secured 

 her and at once opened the burrow. The tunnel was large and 

 ran down to a pocket (PL XI., fig. 4), in which were seven 

 crickets (Gryllus abbreviatus Linn.), neatly arranged on their 

 backs with their heads inward and their long hind legs pro- 

 jecting somewhat into the tunnel. They varied in length from 

 fourteen to seventeen millimeters. All of them were alive and 

 moved without any stimulation. On the fifth one taken out was 

 the long, cylindrical egg, which was placed on the right side 

 of the body at right angles to its length, the free end being di- 

 rected upward. It was now only nine o'clock in the morning, 

 so that it seemed likely that the egg had been laid the day be- 

 fore, on August' twenty-seventh. It hatched on the morning 

 of the thirty-first. The larval stage occupied ten days, during 

 which time five crickets were eaten, the cocoon being spun on 

 September ninth. 



The cricket to which the egg was fastened kicked violently 

 through the first two days after the hatching, striking the larva 

 continually. The other crickets died from day to day but were 

 accepted without question by the larva. 



Harpactopus abdominalis Say. 

 PL II., fig. 1. 



"Warm air, brilliant sunshine, and the wide expanse of the 

 onion-bed made the conditions for wasp-hunting quite perfect 

 on that fifth day of July when we first saw Harpactopus ab- 

 dommalis. The large, handsome wasp, dressed, after the fash- 

 ion of so many of her relatives, in black with a red girdle, was 

 hunting about among the plants with an anxious, hurried air, 

 which seemed to indicate that she was looking for a nesting- 

 place, but when she came to the spot that she wanted, a few 

 rapid scratches opened a burrow that had already been made, 

 showing that this species, like Ammopliila, first digs her nest 

 and then hunts for her quarry. If she had first secured her prey 

 and then made the nest it would have b^en open. 



