258 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis 
naciously clung to another bee, which had evidently 
taken advantage of the owner’s absence to usurp her 
home. 
(g) Relation to Soil conditions. 
Not all of the soil that came out of the burrows went 
into the making of the turrets. Much of it was kicked 
out and fell on the ground below. This was neither dust 
nor pellets, but characteristic minute bits or granules. 
A very considerable heap of these granules had accu- 
mulated in front of the center of the bank, where the 
greatest activity occurred. This strip of drift meas- 
ured 70 inches in length, 6 inches wide and from ¥% to 
21% inches in depth. This of course gave the Tachysphes. 
terminatus wasps an excellent medium in which to make 
their nests, and afforded a material which made pit- 
making for the ant-lions a pleasure. 
It seems superfluous to mention the fact that, had the 
nature of the soil been very different from what it was, 
the colony of insects, especially the principal characters, 
the mining-bees, would never have been there, since 4 
firm, clayey soil of this nature is quite essential to mas- 
onry of their kind; and too, if these pioneers had not 
thrown out a large mass of granular soil to the bottom 
of the bank, there would have been no ant lions, for these 
never dig pits in firm soil. 
(D)conc.upinG REMARKS, 
After following the great things and the little things 
in the lives of these tiny creatures, we may actually com- 
pare the whole to a play upon the stage. The environ 
ment corresponds to the stage; the dominant members 
correspond to the leading characters, the secondary spe 
