114 
her. The vial was a very small one, and so the proceedings could 
be studied minutely. After a few seconds the wasp became in- 
terested in the roach, which she spurred on with short runs, from 
one end of the tube to the other, and soon administered one or 
more ventral quieting stings. Then, placing herself venter to 
venter and head to head to her prey, she operated her jaws on 
the anterior (inner) disc of the labium—perhaps the tongue— 
of her ivictim, for the ~purposewe: 
should judge, of sucking out its mouth 
juices. This act was viewed under a 
strong lens. It was not an act of knead- 
ing with the mandibles, or malaxation. 
Soon I placed the two insects in a prop- 
erly prepared jelly tumbler, and though 
the wasp died the day following, she had 
oviposited on her victim and buried it. 
Although Dolichurus is perhaps the 
swiftest and most restless digger-wasp 
that I have seen, she works fairly well in 
captivity. During the summer and late 
summer of 1917 I had occasion to breed 
some of these wasps for colonization 
purposes. A strongly-made wooden cage 
with wire-netting windows, and of about 
20 cubic feet of space was used. The 
floor was covered with fine earth into 
which was inserted a few little plants, 
and a large number of clay cells an inch 
or so deep were obliquely sunk to their 
Fig. 55. Ventral view of mouths in this soil. Then after some 
Blatella bisignata, difficulty a good number of roaches, 
showing Dolichurus egg nearly all young, was liberated in the 
on right middle coxa, s 
aa cage, and finally thirty or more female 
Dolichurus were admitted. They had 
sunlight a good part of the day, and water was sprinkled daily in 
the cage and much-appreciated honey was applied to the screen 
and plants. During their week’s stay in the cage the wasps be- 
came quieter and even exhibited some attachment for their 
prison, for if one managed to escape she would linger about the 
cage so that she could be readily retaken. Towards evening 
they went to bed in the mud cells or under them, to arise the 
next morning when it became sufficiently warm. But though 
assembled in rather large numbers, not a natural condition, they 
vere by no means fond of each other’s society, as we shall very 
soon see. A rightly-disposed wasp would in the course of her 

