106 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



actions had been repeated several times, the wasp 

 flew away to hunt. We afterwards found that she 

 had finished the third in a set of cells leading from 

 a main gallery. On her return we , delayed her to 

 see what she was carrying. She showed no fear, 

 but alighted close by, and while she was trying 

 to transfer to the third pair of legs the fly that 

 she was clasping with the second pair, it escaped 

 and flew gaily away. Flies are plenty, however, and 

 she soon had another, which she was permitted to 

 store ; and from that time she worked busily until 

 we left her at noon. It took her from two to ten 

 minutes to catch her fly, and at each return two 

 or three minutes were spent in the nest. 



" On opening her tunnel some days later, we 

 found within not only flies, but long-bodied gnats, 

 and all of them seemed to have been brought 

 home uninjured. When the freshest cell was 

 opened some flew away, others were walking about, 

 and all were lively. The wasp egg was laid on 

 the under side of the neck ; and although we 

 could not be certain of the exact time of laying, 

 we thought it hatched at the end of thirty- six 

 hours. From ten to sixteen flies were provided 

 for each larva." 



The same observers found a colony of ten or 

 twelve nests of our C. interruptus, made in a stranded 

 log on the shore of Lake Michigan, and to their 

 surprise the wasps were storing them with little 

 white moths, which they packed length-wise in the 

 nest. They also observed C. stirpicola excavating 



