152 
Psyche 
[September 
she stung it twice on the ventral side of diff erent abdominal 
segments. 
Arriving at the tunnel, she at first walked too swiftly, 
and moved farther than was necessary so that the head of 
the larva extended over the tunnel rather than just to or 
almost to it, as it normally does or should. But she quickly 
backed up a few millimeters, released the prey, walked 
down the hole in a journey of inspection, and out. Now she 
was ready for the provisioning of the cell. She did this by 
backing into the tunnel, seizing the prey and dragging it 
slowly out of sight. It took her exactly one minute to ar- 
range the prey and fix her egg to its side. 
She spent 12 minutes and 3 seconds, or from 2:07 to 
2:19:03, in filling in the tunnel and at other activity about 
the nest site. Her first act upon emerging from the nest 
was to find and select a large pebble which was forced well 
down the shaft. Then she filled in the tunnel with loose 
soil which she kicked back into it and later tamped. This 
process continued, although some material was bitten loose 
nearby. This latter work was necessitated because the soil 
from earlier digging was not readily available. It had been 
carried over some stems and had formed a mound, but the 
stems and debris between it and the tunnel hindered its 
later use. The digger came several times to heavy pieces 
of material, such as sticks, clods, small pebbles and the like. 
These were carried away in her jaws on foot from the nest 
site and discarded, hence nearly all the material used was 
fine soil. 
When the tunnel was nearly full, she searched long and 
tirelessly for a large object to finish filling the tunnel and as 
a blockade to the entrance. She tested many things, but all 
were rejected, until one finally met her needs. She labori- 
ously carried this in her jaws and forced it well into the 
nearly filled tunnel. It was not flush with the surface but 
extended above. Time and again the wasp seized this with 
her mandibles, and for many seconds at a time pushed and 
vibrated it. At last, all seemed well to her. This was after 
she had scraped the surface around the nest site and had 
left objects scattered about. This was in contrast to her 
