INSECT BEHAVIOR 



363 



Very often after one thorough study of the topography of her 

 home has been made, a wasp goes away a second time with 

 much less circling or with none at all. The second diagram 

 [Fig. 291, B] gives a fair illustration of one of these more 

 hasty departures. . . . 



" If the examination of the objects about the nest makes no 

 impression upon the wasp, or if it is not remembered, she ought 

 not to be inconvenienced nor thrown off her track when weeds 

 and stones are removed and the surface of the ground is 

 smoothed over; but this is just what happens. Aporus fasci- 



FIG. 291. 



Locality studies made by a wasp, Sphex ichneumonea. A, a thorough study; B, 

 a hasty study; n, nest. After PECKHAM, from Bull. Wisconsin Geol. and Nat. Hist. 

 Survey. 



atus entirely lost her way when we broke off the leaf that 

 covered her nest, but found it without trouble, when the miss- 

 ing object was replaced. All the species of Cerceris were ex- 

 tremely annoyed if we placed any new object near their nest- 

 ing-places. Our Ammophila refused to make use of her bur- 

 row after we had drawn some deep lines in the dust before it. 

 The same annoyance is exhibited when there is any change 



