238 The Hunting Wasps 



followed. The result was a medley of tangled 

 lines, with sudden bends and turns, branches 

 in and branches out, windings and repeated 

 intersections — in short, a regular labyrinth 

 whose complicated maze was an ocular demon- 

 stration of the perplexity of the lost one. 



When the well has been found and the slab 

 removed, the Wasp has to come back to the 

 caterpillar, which is not always done without 

 some groping about, in cases where her wander- 

 ings to and fro have been very numerous. 

 Though she left her prey easily visible, the Wasp 

 appears to foresee the difficulty of finding it 

 again when the moment comes to drag it home. 

 At least, if the search is unduly prolonged, you 

 see her suddenly interrupt her exploration of 

 the ground and return to her caterpillar, which 

 she feels and nibbles at for a moment, as though 

 to make sure that it is really her own game, her 

 property. Then she hurries back again to the 

 field of search, which she leaves a second time, 

 if need be, and a third, in order to inspect the 

 prey. I am not at all sure that these repeated 

 visits of the Wasp to the caterpillar are not a 

 means of refreshing her memory of the place 

 where she left it. 



This is what happens in exceedingly com- 

 plicated cases ; but as a rule the Wasp goes 

 back quite easily to the well dug the day before 



