Field Studies of the Non-Social Wasps 325 
CHAPTER I. 
Tue Lire Hasirs or Two BEEtLe-HUNTING WASPS. 
THe Jerseypate Cercents, Cerceris raui Roh. 
[S. A. Rohwer]. 
Jerseydale (fig. 26), some 30 miles south of St. Louis, 
consists of a railroad sign-post, a milk-can platform, and 
a well of excellent cold water; this equipment renders it 
easily recognizable as the center of a thinly populated 
but prosperous dairying community. 
Besides the well, Jerseydale has other attractions, un- 
noticed perhaps by the men who daily drive up to the 
platform to exchange their full cans for empty ones. In 
the hard road under the hoofs and wheels abound the 
Cerceris wasps, Cerceris raui. This wasp (fig. 27) was 
described by Rohwer from material submitted from three 
distinct localities: Lake View, Kan.; Wickes, Mo., and 
Jerseydale, Mo.* While only fragmentary notes were 
gathered from the first two localities, at Jerseydale the 
life secrets of this species were more fully discovered. 
One salient feature of their habits is that in all three 
places their nests were dug chiefly in the hard-packed 
roads, where traffic was heavy, and only a very few nests 
on the outskirts of a colony occurred at the roadside. 
The hole which this species makes is an excellent piece 
of workmanship. There is no attempt at concealment of 
the burrow, such as we find practiced, sometimes very 
skillfully, by some other species of wasps. Her nest is 
So inaccessible in its situation that she can well afford 
to work boldly and openly before all men, without fear 
of her home being molested, unless by parasites which 
are cunning enough to elude her and gain access by her 
own doorway. The burrows in each of the three habitats 
*Also taken later at Wesco, Mo., 108 miles west of St. Louis. 
