APRIL, 1900. PECKHAM— INSTINCTS AND HABITS OF WASPS 
85 
Additional Observations on the Instincts and Habits of the 
Solitary Wasps. 
By G. W. and E. G. PECKHAM. 
Chlorion coeruleum Linn. 
C. cocruleinn is an old friend of ours and we have given some 
account of its habits in an earher work,* but we were anxious to 
learn more about it, and when, one morning in the middle of 
August, we saw a female running along with a cricket in her 
mouth, we were only too happy to drop our dignity and run after 
her. She led us a rough race down a steep declivity at one side of 
the island to her nest, which was entirely hidden from view by 
long grass, there being nothing whatever to indicate its presence. 
The cricket was deposited and the wasp flew away without cir- 
cling, but it seemed that we were not the only ones who were in- 
terested in her actions, for immediately after we saw a little dark 
colored wasp come slipping along through the grass and into the 
nest. All remained quiet until, at the end of half an hour, coeru- 
leinii returned with a cricket. We had pushed the grass back to 
get a view of the entrance and this disconcerted her, for she ran 
about for some time seeming doubtful about the place, but she 
finally entered, head first, carrying the cricket with her. A mo- 
ment later there was a commotion down below, and the inquiline 
came out shaking her wings in a flippant way as though she cared 
nothing for an encounter with the big blue Chlorion. We tried 
to catch her, but she ran off under the grass. Twenty-five minutes 
passed, and we began to think that the little wasp had wounded 
the big one, when coeruleum appeared. She stood in the doorway 
turning her head now to this side and now to that, as though 
listening, and now we became conscious of the fact that a cricket 
was chirping loudly near by. Perhaps she was getting the direc- 
tion from which the sound came, for after a little she flew to the 
top of a tall weed, then dropped and entered a hole below, from 
which she issued a moment later with a very limp specimen of 
Gryllus ahhreviatns. An ant, that indiscreetly showed some in- 
terest in her proceedings, was chased away with great vindictive- 
ness, and then the cricket was laid upon its back and scraped, 
four or five times, from head to tail, with her mandibles. She 
then picked it up and carried it toward the nest, but laid it down 
on the way, and repeated the scraping operation, before taking it 
in. When it had been stored, and we had seen her run hunting up 
* Instincts an! Habits of Solitary Wasps, Madison. 1898. 
