89 
freshly spun pupa, and the other a larva that was still eating. 
This one was well grown and had probably hatched from the egg 
laid on the eleventh. 
Tachysphex tarsata Say, 
On the afternoon of the twenty-first of July we saw this 
little red wasp on the Bcmbcx field of the island. She 
had a very worried air and was running about wildly and rapidly, 
holding a small grasshopper wnth the third pair of legs. She let 
it drop four or five times and when she picked it up again she 
seemed to sting it, but of this we were not quite certain. At last 
she left it and began to rush about investigating the Bembex holes, 
entering one of them, and perhaps throwing out a little dirt, as 
though she intended to use it, and then hurrying off to another. 
We have no doubt that her confusion was the result of her having 
lost track of the hole that she had made, or selected, as was the 
case with P. qiiinquenotatus in one of our earlier observations.* 
The Pompiliis, after a long search, resigned herself to the neces- 
sities of the case and made a new nest, but this little wasp could 
not adjust herself to a break in the system of her instinctive ac- 
tivities, and at last deserted her prey and disappeared. We waited 
for an hour, and then, as she did not return, we took possession 
of the grasshopper. It gave no response to stimulation, and never 
revived, a very careful and thorough examination later on show- 
ing that it w^as quite dead. 
On the next morning we again saw this wasp on the Bcmbcx 
field. She was looking for a nesting place, and presently selected 
one and began to work. The weather was warm and sunny so 
that the Bembecids were in the full swing of their obstreperous 
activity, and, perhaps, resenting the presence of the little red w^asp 
as an intrusion, or perhaps in a spirit of teasing, they kept snatch- 
ing her up and carrying her ofif to a distance of two or three feet. 
She took these interruptions with the most philosophic composure, 
hurrying back to her work as soon as she w^as released without any 
display of resentment. When the nest was finished she made a 
careful locality study, both on foot and on the wing, and then 
flew away. Twenty minutes later she came back, apparently to 
refresh her memory, for she again made careful notes of all the 
points that could help her to identify the place. She dug a little 
more, and then again departed, to return five minutes later on 
foot, with a grasshopper. In spite of all the precautions she had 
taken, at this exciting moment she was unable to remember just 
where her nest was, and spent some time in running wildly al^out, 
but whe n she^lid^nd it s he went in w ithout any delay. We 
* Instincts and Habits of Solitary Wasps, p. 135. 
