113 
A female wasp sallies forth in search of her prey. She runs 
rapidly over the ground, peeking in cracks and looking under 
fallen leaves, etc. Once in a while she takes a short flight to 
some other hunting ground. Sooner or later the desired roach 
is flushed, usually an immature one, which departs with much 
speed, the wasp hotly pursuing. The fugitive is not satisfied 
with remaining in one hiding place, unless the shelter is excep- 
tionally good, but decamps constantly. In a straight run the 
thoroughly aroused wasp is not the equal of her prey, nor does 
her vision appear to be especially good, but excitedly fluttering 
her half-raised wings she searches about, partly running and 
partly flying and circling. She may lose this roach, but eventually 
captures another, grabbing a cercus or leg with her mandibles 
and bracing herself as well as she can, holding on grimly, she 
brings her abdomen forward and soon stings her victim some- 
where in the breast. The blattid is then done for; though not 
stung to immobility, it is now deprived of its swift action and 
behaves in a docile if stubborn manner as the wasp manipulates 
it. She grasps it near the base of an antenna, and backing away 
or running sideways drags her more or less resisting victim 
along, an awkward performance, (Fig. 54). Now she will re- 
lease the roach and run about swiftly, seeking for it a temporary 
place of safety—a small tuft of grass, growing leaf, etc. Event- 
ually returning, the prey will be hoisted upon the selected spot, 
and Dolichurus is off again to see about a burial place. Though 
she may enter what to the onlooker seems many a promising 
cavity, it is some time before she is satisfied. The roach may 
be visited again and again before she has decided upon its future 
home. Finally it is dragged in the same awkward manner to 
the crack or hole she has selected for it; the wasp lets go her 
burden here, enters, turns around and, partly emerging, pulls the 
roach inside. Some minutes elapse before Dolichurus reappears ; 
she has worked over the roach and laid her egg on one of its 
mid-coxae. She may now cleanse herself somewhat and then sets 
to work filling up the roach’s tomb. She picks up small lumps 
of soil in her mandibles and carries them into the cavity, grad- 
ually filling the same. The location is then disguised somewhat 
and the wasp takes wing. 
September 12, 1916. A wasp utilized a short hole in a de- 
cayed twig which lay on the ground. The hole not being deep 
enough for the wasp, she took out some of the filling, went and 
got her prey—a young roach of another species—stored it and, 
coming out very shortly, filled the burrow. 
July 11. Late in the morning I caught a female Dolichurus 
and put her in a vial. Then I placed a lively young roach with 

