129 
inch or two down, this was quickly done. Our wasp now backs 
out to the surface of the ground, where she turns about and, 
grasping the locustid by the head or thorax, backs in, dragging 
her prey after her (Fig. 64). I dug up the burrows of two 
or three of these wasps shortly after they had brought in one or 
more grasshoppers, and found in one case ten grasshoppers, evi- 
dently of three different genera, and a small wasp larva; in the 
other, nine or more victims, one constituting a fourth species to 
the bill of fare, and a half-grown wasp larva. Some of the 
locusts appeared to be of a carnivorous type. Other newer bur- 
rows contained a single grasshopper bearing a wasp egg. 

Fig. 66. Female pupa 
of A. mutica. Nat- 
ural size. 

Fig. 65. Cocoon of A. mutica 
eut open to show resting wasp 
larva within. Natural size. 
In plugging up her burrow temporarily, the wasp scrapes in 
the dirt with her forefeet and tamps it down with her head. The 
burrow might not be filled quite to the level of the ground, so 
that one could find it readily enough. However, when a suf- 
ficient number of grasshoppers is stored, Ammobia fills up the 
burrow for good; a painstaking job when compared with the pre- 
vious temporary closures of the abode of her young. One wasp 
took twenty minutes at this task. She fills in carefully and does 
much tamping with her head; the burrow is plugged to the 
level of the surrounding ground and its situation disguised by 
scraping and distributing debris over it. 
The wasp provides several burrows during her lifetime. Stor- 
ing them at irregular intervals, and even when the young wasp 
occupant is eating, cannot be called feeding her grub from day 
to day and is by no means a step towards social evolution. It 
is interesting to note, however, that this wasp (and others as 
well) knows how much food her grub requires, though her 
provisioning may and often does extend over a period of several 
days. 
