332 Trans. Acad, Sci. of St. Louts 
from side to side, and the jaws move about seeking the 
food when it is taken from them. 
The beetles, when they are removed from the cells, are 
motionless, but if they are taken from the mother wasp 
as she brings them in, and placed in a vial, they soon re- 
vive so that they climb over one another very actively. 
Hence one doubts if they have actually been stung. The 
22 taken from the wasp mothers, as previously stated, 
were very active when examined the same day; when in- 
spected two days later there was much excrement in the 
vials, indicating that life had continued for some time, 
but the beetles were dead; whether death had been due 
to the confinement or the sting, I do not know. Close 
observation has taught me that these wasps do sometimes 
sting their prey, but how general this habit is has not 
been ascertained. One of them stung a live weevil which 
{ substituted for her own, while another did not. When 
the wasp was out foraging I placed a small ball of cotton 
in the mouth of her burrow; when she returned and at- 
tempted to enter, she dropped her prey in alarm and 
flew away, and when she returned she found I had re- 
moved the plug. Meanwhile I had also exchanged her 
quiet weevil for a live one, which was so active that I 
could hardly keep it near the hole. The mother returned, 
flew directly into the hole as usual, and after a few sec- 
onds crept to the top, poked her head out cautiously, 
grasped the beetle in her jaws and dragged it in; if a 
sting was administered it must have been done under- 
ground. 
Many wasps, in foraging or bringing in building mate- 
rial, take a direct flight to and from the place of interest, 
either with or without circles of orientation. This species, 
so far as I have observed, follows a rather strange 
course; she does not fly ‘‘as a bird flies,’’ or ‘‘in a bee 
