The Travellers 217 



The Hairy Ammophila is one of the very rare 

 exceptions among the Digger-wasps in the 

 matter of nest-building ; she gets hers ready 

 in the early days of spring. Towards the end 

 of March, if the season be mild, or at latest in 

 the first fortnight of April, when the Crickets 

 assume the adult form and laboriously cast the 

 skin of infancy on the threshold of their homes, 

 when the poet's-narcissus puts forth its first 

 flowers and the Bunting utters his long-drawn 

 call from the top of the poplars in the fields, 

 Ammophila hirsuta is at work digging a home 

 for her grubs and victualling it, whereas the 

 other Ammophilae and the various Hunting 

 Wasps in general postpone this labour until 

 autumn, during September and October. This 

 early nidification, preceding by six months the 

 date adopted by the vast majority, at once 

 suggests a few reflections. 



We wonder if the Ammophilae whom we find 

 occupied with their burrows in the first days of 

 April are really insects of that year, that is to 

 say, if these spring workers completed their 

 metamorphosis and left their cocoons during 

 the previous three months. The general rule is 

 for the Digger to become a perfect insect, to quit 

 her subterranean dwelling and to busy herself 

 with her larvae all in one season. Most of the 

 Predator}^ Wasps leave the galleries where they 



