152 
Psyche 
[December 
found elsewhere, would seem to follow the law of chance 
and not be due to a definite selective action on the part of 
the huntress. 
The observed females of P. luctuosa have appeared to 
use, nevertheless, some selection in the individual cut- 
worms chosen for their young. Whether this is a wise and 
consistent discrimination, or a chance and sporadic habit, 
it would be difficult to say. 
The wasp rather frequently malaxates her prey after 
it has been stung to quietness. She pinches its neck and 
laps up the juices issuing from its mouth. This appears 
usually to be tasteful to her and may play a part in her 
life’s economy. A rejected prey may or may not have been 
one previously malaxated. In one instance, at least, she 
stored a prey, which from malaxation was found to be 
highly distasteful to her, and that with no ill effects to 
her young. 
The rejection of certain prey does not always seem to 
have been prompted by the small size of the victim, for 
often it is large and plump and in the matter of size the 
wasp is not exceedingly exact. She apparently never stores 
more than one cutworm to a nest but the particular cut- 
worm may vary somewhat in actual dimensions. Although 
she exercises great freedom of choice, it is yet possible 
she does sometimes unearth one too small for her needs. 
The wasp appears wholly unable to recognize a para- 
sitized prey. This is shown by the fact that she not infre- 
quently stores such a one for her young to eat. It then pre- 
sents grave danger or dire disaster to her progeny. Two 
such prey were used in quick succession one afternoon by 
the same digger, the wasp larvae of which escaped seem- 
ingly only by a miracle. These nests were taken in my own 
backyard at Pasadena, California on April 30, 1928. The 
two nests were both provisioned in a total time of but 
little more than one hour. 
Each larva, with an attached wasp egg, was obtained at 
once after the wasp had stored it in her nest. They were 
kept in a warm room where development was hastened 
and recorded. During the first day nothing unusual was 
noted but on the second a number of small larvae were 
