250 
_The particular species of wasp under consideration chooses for bur- 
rows the dryer and more elevated portions of lawns, especially the 
slight terraces along the sides of roadways. Experience shows that the 
Species requires comparatively dry ground in which to undergo its 
transformations, 
excessive moisture 
the stored Cica- 
das, many of the 
Specimens wun- 
earthel being de- 
stroyed by this 
agent. On the 
other hand, in dry 
earth [ have found 
Cicadas in excel- 
Fic. 35.—Cicada in burrow of Sphecius, with full-grown larva of latter 
feeding—natural size (original). 
lent preservation, ~ 
which had -evidently been placed there a year previous, but under 
which the wasp egg had failed, for some reason, to hatch. The 
burrows consist of a gently sloping entrance, extending for about 6 
inches, when ordinarily a turn is made at right angles and the excava- 
tion continued 6 or 8 inches further, terminating in a globular cell about 
14 inches in diameter. Frequently a number of branches leave the 
main burrow at about the same point, and terminate, after a length of 
6 or 8 inches, in cells similar to the one described. More commonly, 
however, the branches leave the main burrow at irregular intervals. 
The different types of burrow are shown in the illustration, (Fig. 33) e 
representing the entrance and ec the cell. The cells, which are remark- 
ably uniform in size and shape, contain one or sometimes two Cicadas, 
those stored with two being on the whole the more numerous. In the 
cells containing two Cicadas the larva acquires larger size, and as the 
female wasp is a good deal larger than the male, this would indicate 
that one Cicada only is required for the latter and two for the former, 
though [ have no idea that the amount of nourishment influences the 
sex (a favorite theory with some naturalists) for I believe that sex is 
predetermined in the egg. 
The exceedingly delicate, pure white, elongate-ovoid egg of this species 
is deposited in such a position as to be covered by the median thigh of 
the Cicada. (See Fig. 34.) In hatching, the larva does not emerge from 
the skin of the egg, but merely protrudes its head and begins at once to 
draw nourishment from between the sternal sutures of the Cicada. (See 
Fig. 35.) The egg requires but two or three days to hatch, and the 
larval life is very brief, not much exceeding a week. The general 
form of the mature larva is shown at Fig. 36a. It possesses great 
extensile and retractile power, which enables it to thoroughly explore 
and exhaust the body contents of its prey. At full growth it measures 
inducing mold in - 
