242 
Psyche 
[December 
In 1915 on the water near the shore of a lake at Lakeview, 
Kansas, a Pompiled and her spider were seen behaving in 
the same way as described above but at that time I was a 
novice in waspology and did not fully appreciate the drama 
that was being enacted before me. I thought at the time that 
both had fallen from the branches overhead, and the wasp 
was trying to regain the shore. In 1919 at Wickes, Missouri, 
my wife saw the same behavior on the surface of a small 
pond, but not having a net was unable to capture the pair ; 
but knowing of Needham and Lloyd’s account by this time 
she was fully prepared to appreciate the behavior. 
And the third observation was made by Dr. Gustave 
Dahms, an ardent fisherman, who pays much attention to 
nature study. Here is his account as he related it to me: 
On July 20th, 1932, while watching his cork bob in the 
stream near Creve Couer Lake, Mo., he saw a black wasp 
towing a spider twice as large as herself on the surface of 
the water. Straddling her spider, she looked like an aqua- 
plane, while she made a distance of six feet to the wooden 
pillar in the water supporting a railroad trestle. Landing 
on this pillar, she moved upwards and backwards dragging 
her spider after her to the top of the trestle, and then disap- 
peared. There was soil packed in between the railroad ties 
at the edges, and in this she evidently buried her spider. 
Most interesting of all was the fact that between 10 :30 and 
2 :00 o’clock while this fisherman was watching his bob, this 
behavior was repeated four times with hardly any variation 
in her course, in relation to this bob. The trip, as he en- 
thusiastically explained, was purposeful each time, and the 
distance of ten feet of travel in the water from the bob 
where he always first noticed the wasp to the post on which 
she clmibed consumed only about one minute, so fast did she 
sail. There was a slight current in her direction which 
helped her to make speed. Unfortunately he paid no atten- 
tion from whence she came, but saw her each time as she 
neared the bob. Unfortunately too he did not get the spec- 
imen for identification and he never found out whether all 
four spiders went into one burrow or into four burrows. 
