Vol. xxiii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 245 
Kellogg in his “American Insects” gives a good illustrated 
account of the habits of Ammophila sp? which excavates bur- 
rows on the saline flats along San Francisco Bay, in California. 
That species closes its burrow with the disk of salt-incrusted 
sand which it cut out in the first place to commence the exca- 
vation. 
The Peckhams in their “Instincts and Habits of Solitary 
Wasps” have made extended observations on the habits of 
Ammophila urnaria. These close the entrance of their bur- 
rows with lumps of earth or small stones and pack down the 
superimposed dirt with a pebble making all smooth like the 
surrounding well packed soil. 
The genus Ammophila stores its burrows with lepidopterous 
larvae of several species. That described by Kellogg, uses a 
Geometrid, and urnaria a Noctuid. A rather small species ob- 
served in Cheyenne County, Kansas, in July, selected a green 
Noctuid larva. We observed her on the tent roof struggling 
with a green cutworm she was trying to carry away. It ap- 
peared that the larva stuck to the cloth and would neither raise 
itself nor roll off. The wasp grasping the back of the larva 
near the head with her mandibles, reached up and inserted her 
sting in the ventral part of the thorax. This made the larva 
let loose and after some tumbling the two rolled off the tent 
to the ground, and Ammophila straddling its prey carried it 
about three feet, then dropping it went off about three inches, 
scratched away some dirt, removed a lump of baked earth, and 
went down the hole thereby opened. Emerging she returned 
to the larva, pulled it to the hole, and descending into the latter 
backwards, dragged the larva after her. She soon came out, 
replaced the lid (the lump of baked earth) and carefully 
scratched dirt upon it, using her head to tamp it down upon 
the lid. Then picking up a small stick she packed the earth 
down a little, after which she scratched more dirt over the 
place. Three times she returned to make the deception more 
complete. So carefully did she do her work that the onlookers 
could not positively locate her nest. 
A larger species was observed in Rawlins County in the act 
