234 The Animal Mind 



similar "locality survey" is made by hive bees and by 

 social wasps. Secondly, the Peckhams argue that if the 

 wasp does not remember her nest by landmarks, it ought 

 to make no difference to her when the surroundings are 

 altered in any way. They found, however, that a wasp 

 of one species could not discover her nest when a leaf that 

 covered it was broken off, but found it again without 

 trouble when the leaf was replaced. Another wasp aban- 

 doned the nest she had made for herself with much labor, 

 because the Peckhams, to identify the spot themselves, 

 drew radiating lines from it in the dust. A third argument 

 against the existence of a special sense of direction is the 

 fact that wasps sometimes are unable to find their nests. 

 In one case the Peckhams dug up the nest of a wasp and 

 she made another five inches away. After an absence 

 of three hours the wasp returned, and seemed to be puzzled 

 as to whether the old spot or the new one were the place 

 of her nest. "At first she alighted upon the first site and 

 scratched away a little earth, and then explored several 

 other places, working about for twelve minutes, when she 

 at last found the right spot." Similarly, when a wasp 

 that was carrying her prey left it for a few moments to go 

 to the nest, as many of them do, apparently to see that 

 all is right there, if any of the surrounding objects were 

 altered she often had great difficulty in finding the prey 

 again. On one occasion a wasp of another species dug its 

 nest in the midst of a group of nests of the Bembex wasp. 

 These latter are usually dug in a wide bare space of earth 

 which has no vegetable growth to serve as a landmark. 

 When the intruder had finished her nest, it looked just like 

 the Bembex holes. She went away, secured a spider, and 

 when she returned she could not find her nest. "She flew, 

 she ran, she scurried here and there, but she had utterly 



