Vol. xxiv] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 403 



How far she carried it is not known, but she was gone for five 

 minutes. The second spider, which was larger, must have 

 caused more trouble, for the rear end of the wasp protruded 

 from the cell as she tugged away at it, occasionally coming 

 out entirely, but soon going back to again grapple with the 

 impostor. After five-and-a-half minutes she succeeded in 

 carrying it out of the nest, but did not fly out of the window 

 with it this time, but dropped it to the floor very near to the 

 nest. The wasp then went to work on the third spider, this 

 one larger than either of the other two. After five minutes 

 she succeeded in bringing it just to the entrance of the cell 

 where, with only the least bit of effort it would have dropped 

 to the floor, but instead of expending this last bit of energy 

 the wasp flew away, straight out of the window. She did 

 not return in an hour, but the next morning the spider was 

 gone. 



During the absence of the Pelopoens, one-fourth of a match 

 was broken off and placed in the open cell, partly protruding. 

 The returning wasp buzzed nervously about for three minutes, 

 examining the surrounding wall and cracks. One would al- 

 most suspect that she was deliberately seeking a location for 

 a new nest, when suddenly she turned back to the cell, pulled 

 the stick out with her jaws and dropped it to the floor. She 

 evidently hesitated about entering, however, for she skeptically 

 thrust her head into the cell several times and then left. Dur- 

 ing her absence a whole match was placed in the cell with more 

 than half of its length protruding. After three minutes the 

 wasp returned, flew wildly in all directions and circles about 

 the room and dashed out the window, never to return. 



Position of the Nests in Relation to the Light. 

 Whether wasps build their nests in any particular direction 

 with relation to the source of light is difficult to discover, 

 since the places which commonly harbor these nests usually 

 have many sources of light. But we were fortunate in dis- 

 covering eleven mud nests in an old corn crib which was lighted 

 by only two small windows in the north wall. 



