WILD LIFE IN CALIFORNIA 



77 



them to the hole, and when the last fragment 

 was dropped into its place the point of a knife 

 blade could not have found an entrance be- 

 tween any of the pieces. In other words, she 

 had fitted them so perfectly as to leave no 

 chinks and with a surface even with the 

 ground. All of which was accomplished in 

 but little more than 10 seconds of time. 



It was evident that she had completed her 

 work of building this nest, or had simply quit 

 work for the day and closed the hole to shut 

 out intruders. According to the records of 

 observers it is a peculiarity of many of the 

 wasps to work only during the heat of the day. 

 Now for the first time feverish haste in f her 

 actions were suspended. She walked around 

 the hole two or three times, not going more 

 than four or five inches away, then enlarged 

 the circuit in a couple of more trips. While 

 doing this she stopped to examine two stalks 

 of straw, one prone, the other erect. The one 

 lying on the ground she straddled and walked 

 along its entire length with her antennae rap- 

 idly working as if feeling for something on 

 the straw that she could not see. The stalk 

 that was standing erect she climbed for about 

 eight inches, using her antennae in the same 

 manner as with the other straw. The sig- 

 nificance of these actions I could not deter- 

 mine unless it was to familiarize herself with 

 the location of the nest, for during the short 

 and longer circuits she made two or three 

 trips to the place of entrance to her nest al- 

 though there was nothing, as far as I could 

 see, to indicate its location other than the 

 five fragments of rock so closely laid to- 

 gether as to appear almost as one. She 

 finally extended her circle to twenty feet or 

 more, lit once or twice on the ground, then 

 flew away. 



The little fly had remained in the neigh- 

 borhood all the time while the wasp was 

 inspecting the surroundings but wisely kept 

 out of her way, but when the wasp started 

 off on the large and last circle the little ras- 

 cal seemed to know the coast was free from 

 danger, for it flew to the hole and remained 

 a few seconds while it inspected the condi- 

 tions. If it had hoped to find an opening 

 large enough to admit its tiny body it was 

 disappointed, for it, too, flew away. I 

 waited for more than an hour for the pos- 

 sible return of the wasp, thinking she might 

 have closed the nest temporarily while off 

 hunting for a caterpillar. 



Six o'clock coming and the dinner bell ring- 

 ing I gave up further watch for the day but 

 first took occasion to mark the location of 

 the spot that I might resume observations the 

 following day. I made a diagram also of the 

 five pieces of rock and the way they were 

 fitted into place. 



The next day was quite cool and unfavor- 

 able for the presence of wasps. However, I 

 remained about four hours, two hours before 

 and the two hours after lunch, near the site 

 of the nest, without the satisfaction of noting 

 the reappearance of Mrs. Ammophila. I re- 

 peatedly examined the "masonry" work of 

 the closed hole to see if it had been visited 

 and the nest entered while my attention was 



possibly diverted to some other part of the 

 grounds, but at the close of the day the en- 

 trance of the hole was exactly as the wasp 

 left it the evening before. 



During the forenoon of the next or third 

 day of observation I repeatedly visited the 

 location of the nest but found the "masonry" 

 intact. It had not been disturbed. The 

 day was quite warm, really hot enough to 

 meet the requirements of almost every living 

 thing that revels in high temperatures. Im- 

 mediately after having my lunch I made an- 

 other trip to the lot. As I bent over to ex- 

 amine the closed entrance of the nest I dis- 

 turbed a little fly that was flitting around 

 the place, not moving more than a foot or so 

 at a time. It was one of the species men- 

 tioned in the account of the first day's ob- 

 servation. I concluded that the presence of 

 the little pirate indicated that Mrs. Ammo- 

 phila had come back or was expected home 

 with her game, and probably I would now 

 have an opportunity to see what kind of cat- 

 erpillar she would have and how she disposed 

 of it in the nest, etc. However, a lively 

 buzzing about my head notified me of the 

 error in my conclusions, and that the fly was 

 waiting for another wasp — the one that was 

 flying around me. From the position of the 

 fly and the actions of the wasp I thought she 

 must be making a nest close by. I soon de- 

 tected the spot, not more than eighteen 

 inches from the nest of the Ammophila. I 

 had almost stepped upon the entrance while 

 the owner was down in the hole. I moved a 

 step or so away. The wasp seemed satisfied 

 with the extent of my compliance with her 

 request to get out of the way of her opera- 

 tions, for she soon lit on the ground and went 

 down the hole and later backed out with a 

 scrap of dirt or rock, dumping it within an 

 inch or eo of the entrance. She made one 

 or two more trips of this kind, then stood 

 outside and kicked the stuff backwards, scat- 

 tering the fragments away from around the 

 entrance. She at no time took to the wing 

 in removing or handling the stuff excavated. 

 She brought it out with her mandibles but 

 after that disposed of it with her feet. This 

 difference in working was due to the fact 

 that it was a different species of wasp. It 

 was not quite as long as the Ammophila but 

 more stoutly built, body black with a red 

 abdomen and shiny blue-back wings. It was 

 what I took to be a Priononyx. While dif- 

 fering in appearance, the species is closely 

 related to the Ammophila, in fact it 

 belongs to the same family in the order of 

 Hymenoptera. While the former always 

 stores her nest with caterpillars, the latter 

 uses only grasshoppers for the purpose. 



After taking a few more loads of dirt from 

 the hole she came out and made a brief sur- 

 vey of things and then proceeded to close up 

 the entrance by kicking in the dirt that lay 

 within a couple of inches of the place. She 

 completed the work by leveling the surface 

 so there was no depression or other indica- 

 tion of the presence of the underground nest. 

 Then she flew away. I waited and watched 

 some time for her return hoping that I would 



