Field Studies of the Non-Social Wasps 421 
The fourth nest taken later in the year contained in 
its two cells 17 spiders, 6 of which were Phidippus and 7 
Misumessus. 
One of the most neglected and difficult aspects of wasp 
behavior is the observation of their hunting habits. A 
new approach, however, to a solution of the study would 
be a knowledge of the life-history of their prey. If we 
knew the habits and habitat of all the spiders here re- 
corded, we should at least know into what strange worlds 
the wasp goes in pursuit of them. For instance the 
mother in nest 55B showed such a fondness for Gayenna 
pectorosa; where does she go abroad to find this spider? 
Comstock® tells us absolutely nothing but gives a taxo- 
nomic description. Not only is there no word about the 
habits of the genus, but even in the discussion of the sub- 
family, Anyphaeminae, to which this genus belongs, there 
are no generalities which even hint at the probable habi- 
tat. The Cambridge Natural History, (the volume on 
spiders by Warburton) has not even the name in the in- 
dex. It takes very little of this sort of examination to 
make us humbly admit that little T. clavatum knows more 
about some spiders than do her human brethren. This 
wasp-mother also collected two specimens of Philodro- 
mus pernix, Of this species Comstock tells us that it is 
the most common representative of the genus, found on 
houses and fences; it is gray, resembling in color old un- 
painted buildings. When we seek information concern- 
ing Epeira sp. and E. parvula which she gathered, we 
find under the name of Eustala anastera, in the Spider 
Book, that they are frequently exceedingly self-protec- 
tive, resembling the bark of the tree or other plant on 
which they rest, and they act as if conscious of this pro- 
tection, running only a short distance and then crouching 
6 Spider Book, p. 512. 
