Field Studies of the Non-Social Wasps 339 
found in the dust on the top of one of these nests. These 
weevils ‘‘play possum,’’ and one cannot always tell 
whether they are dead from the sting or merely in a feint, 
but these showed no indication of life, even when they 
were pinned without the usual formalities of a cyanide 
bottle. : 
These wasps dig with surprising rapidity. In one nest 
where the loose dust on the surface was brushed away at 
7 o’clock one evening, the next morning at 9 there was a 
mound of earth 2 inches in diameter and 34 inch high 
which had been newly thrown out of the burrow. It 
Seemed impossible that this mound could have been 
thrown up since daylight; hence I suspect that the mother 
Verceris had been at work during the night. After all, 
how can they tell day from night when they are at work 
in the inky darkness of their underground tunnels? 
Rain works real hardship to these little creatures. One 
of my records tells of a nest in which the work was pro- 
gressing nicely, and each morning showed a mound of 
fresh dirt on the surface. A steady rain soon flattened 
the mound, but the plug held for several hours; a down- 
pour eventually washed it down, however, and the hole 
was flooded. The next day I watched the nest and con- 
cluded that the owner had been drowned, for during sev- 
eral hours of sunshine she did not appear. In the middle 
of the afternoon, however, I saw her again carrying in 
her eatch of bill-bugs! How she could have escaped death 
by drowning I cannot see. In other nests which we 
watched, however, the plugs were soon washed down; 
the occupants of most of these nests never reappeared. 
Three survivors tried to rebuild their homes, but were 
defeated by heavy rains. Thus we see that the rain here 
was a factor in exterminating the adult population; how 
the young fared in these circumstances we do not know. 
