1923] A Note on the Nesting Habits of Tachytes distinctus 221 
An effort was made to excavate the burrows but the sandy 
soil was friable and in only one was the terminus successfully 
reached. This was the burrow under the sheet of tin; this sheet 
lay horizontally about ten inches under the surface of the soil, 
and by shoveling off this soil the sheet was removed and the 
tunnel exposed. It was found that her own gallery began about 
four inches from where she entered the opening beneath the tin. 
The tunnel ran horizontally and the tin served as its roof, leaving 
a miniature trench when the sheet was lifted; this trench ran in 
the shape of a quarter circle for about four inches, where it 
entered the ground and continued as a straight burrow for an 
additional distance of six inches, never at any point going down 
more than M inch below the plane of the first portion. The 
diameter of the burrow of her own making was approximately 
Y 2 inch. One grasshopper was found at the end of the burrow. It 
lived about a day after its disinterment. 
The most interesting feature about the nesting habits of 
this species is that, though they utilize the old burrows of other 
creatures, they use them only as a vestibule; but once under 
cover they dig their own tunnel in a way well becoming to in- 
dustrious creatures. They do not, like certain other wasps, use 
ready made burrows for nesting purposes, but only use that site 
to conceal their nests from prying eyes, where they can work 
unhindered. My observations on the habits of this species 
would be incomplete if I failed to note the very interesting and 
significant characteristic, its ability to find out and utilize the 
beginnings of burrows, and thus gain safety and save labor. 
Williams (Kans. Univ. Sci. Bull 8:194-197, 1913) finds that 
the entrance to a burrow of this wasp had a circular mound 
resembling “somewhat the appearance of a mud tube such as 
are made by crayfish.” May this not actually have been a 
crayfish burrow that Tachytes used as a vestibule to her own 
tunnel? Williams also finds in Kansas, that the cells are strung 
along the main shaft in an irregular manrier, and in twenty 
cells that he opened, fifty six acridians were found. Fifty one of 
these belonged to the tribe Melanopli, and the other five being 
Ageneotettix deoruni and Orphuella speciosa. 
