Field Studies of the Non-Social Wasps 357 
it for a distance of two feet, where she lapsed again into 
the same loitering, sitting astride her spider. I wished 
to let her alone and observe her natural capacity for 
loafing, but I could not remain longer so took both wasp 
and spider. 
In the foregoing pages we have remarked upon the 
unusual versatility of this little wasp. This character- 
istic is generally regarded as an advantageous faculty, 
but we must not forget that versatility may lead to stu- 
pid, labor-wasting ways as well as ingenious, economical 
methods. Witness the following story of wasted time 
and energy. 
This P, mellipes was seen carrying a spider under her 
body in the usual way, i. e., venter to venter and the 
anal tip grasped in the wasp’s jaws, while the first pair 
of legs held it close to the wasp’s body. Thus the wasp 
walked actively about on the face of an almost perpen- 
dicular bank, and entered about a dozen abandoned 
Anthophora burrows, coming out very soon from all ex- 
cepting the last; there she remained for some time. I 
placed a test-tube over the hole to take her when she 
Should emerge, but when she saw the tube she darted 
back into the depths of the burrow, but soon again ven- 
tured to the orifice. Seeing that something was wrong, 
she went back into the hole again, got her spider and 
attempted to escape with it, which I permitted. After 
that she carried this spider in and out of more than 
thirty holes, always holding it in the same manner, going 
into one hole twice without seeming to know it, becom- 
ing entangled once in a spider’s web, from which she 
cleared herself with a few well-placed kicks, once tum- 
bling down with her burden from the top of the bank, 
but spreading her wings when half way down and re- 
gaining her position. Eventually, she came out of one 
