128 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



their necks, with tlieir long sickle-shaped jaws. 

 The females may generally be handled with the 

 naked fingers with perfect impunity ; for, like 

 those of most of the "Wood Wasps {Grahro 

 family) , it is not one time in five hundred that 

 they will use their stings, though they will gen- 

 erally make ineffectual attempts to wound with 

 their long slender sharp-pointed jaws. The spe- 

 [Fis. 100.] cies sketched herewith, 



"^ ^ . .^ ^ the Painted-wing Digger 

 Wasp, {AmmopMla pic- 

 ' tipennis, n. sp. Fig. 100), 

 is new to science, and a 

 full description of it will 

 i^'^' k l\ y^'^ be found in the Appen- 

 dix. It is tolerably com- 

 mon in South Illinois, 



Colors-Black ™ablood-rea;^"*^e ^'^""^ ^^^"^^^ '==»P- 



wings mst-redauddiisky, tured it in the more 

 northerly parts of the State, and do not be- 

 lieye that it is to be met with there. Some 

 of our common species greatly exceed it in 

 size and beaut}', many of them being elegant- 

 ly marked in various patterns with patches of 

 silvery white pubescence. All of them, however, 

 have the same general shape and make, and no 

 doubt have the same general habits. We figure 

 this species here, though it is comparatively 

 small and inconspicuously colored, because we 

 have received the following very interesting ac- 

 count of its habits from the mouth of Mr. 

 T. A. E. Holcomb, of South Pass, in South 

 Illinois. 



On June 10th, 1868, I saw tliis wasp carrying a good- 

 sized cutworm alonjj the surfoce of the ground lor a 

 distance of about six rods. She held the cutworm 

 back downwards, so that the head and tail curled up- 

 wards, grasping it with her jaws and front legs and 

 walking with her four hind legs. I watched her for a 

 long time, aud began to think she would never arrive at 

 the end of her journey; but at last she commenced 

 circling about with the worm till she found the hole, 

 which had apparently been dug beforehand by her for 

 the reception of her prey. As nearly as I could esti- 

 mate It, she had directed her course in the first instance 

 about ten feet on one side of her "objective point." 

 Having at length succeeded in finding the hole, she 

 proceeded to enlarge it, having previously laid the 

 worm down, which was alive but not hvely. She then 

 went in backwards, dragging the worm in after her, 

 and staid underground rather less than a minute. At 

 the end of this time she re-appeared, of course with- 

 out the worm, and began to fill up the excavation, 

 ramming in the loose earth with her head. There was 

 not quite enough loose dirt round the mouth of the hole 

 to fill it completely up, there being about one-eighth of 

 an inch in depth stiU unfilled after using all the exca- 

 vated materials. I was curious to see whether she 

 would be careful enough to supply the deficiency so 

 that no insect foe might be guided to the spot, where 

 she had taken so much pains to deposit the cutworm 

 as food for her future offspring I was not disappohited. 

 In a very short time she commenced digging a second 

 hole witli her jawS; about an inch away Irom the first- 

 and with the dirt tliat came out of this she filled up the 

 first hole so that not the least vestige of it remained 

 Just as the operation was completed, I caught the wasp 

 and preserved her In my collection duly labeled, accord- 

 ing to my custom. 



I subsequently du^ into the spot ^\"iicre the cutworm 

 had been buried, and found the worm about two and a 

 half Inches belov\r the surface of the ground, with an 

 e^g attached to it near its middle. This cutworm I 

 placed, egg and all, in a small jar along with some 

 damp earth; and on emptying oiit the contents of the 

 jar eighteen days afterwards, I found that the worm 

 was completely consumed, aud that the larva of the 

 wasp had spun itself up in a cocoon. Whether or not 

 I shall succeed in breeding the perfect wasp from this 

 larva in 1869, remains to Ijc proved. 



Almost all the numerous species belonging to 

 the above gcnu,^ (Ammojjhila), the habits of 

 which are known, provision their nests, like our 

 new species, witli caterpilltirs ; only one or two 

 species employing spiders, either normally or 

 occasionally, for this purpose. We might quote 

 many similar cases in other genera of Digger 

 AVasps ; and in all of them we may see interest- 

 ing examples of the great law of the Unity of 

 Habits. 



In No. (i of the Amerk^ax Entomologist, 

 page 111, v/e gave a figure of the Tarantula of 

 Texas {My gale Heiitzii, Girard), and an account 

 from tlie pen of Dr. Lincecum of Texas of the 

 mode in which it is captured, and stung so as to 

 completely pnralyze it, by a gigantic Digger 

 Wasp {Pepsis \_pompilus\ formosa, Say) ; after 

 which it is deposited, as provision for the future 

 larva of the mother-wasp, in a hole which she 

 digs for that purpose in the ground. We prc- 



[Kig. lOl] 



/ 



"hi. 





Colors — Bluish-green ; wings rufoiis aud dusky . 



sent herewith a figure of this Tarantula-killer, 

 as it is commonly called in Texas ; and we 

 append an account of its mode of preying upon 

 the Tarantula, by Mr. S. B. Buckley of Texas, 

 which was printed in the Proceedings of the 

 Philadelphia Entomological Society six years 

 before Dr. Lincecum wrote on the subject.* This 

 account embodies several particulars, wliich have 

 not previously apijearcd in our columns. 



• Vol. I, pp. 138-9. 



