Transactions Texas Academy of Science. 
31 
shelf to receive the bits of rubbish and the sand with which the 
tunnel was now being tilled. Dry leaves and twigs were dropped 
into the bole and sand scratched in on top of these while all was 
stuffed down with the head. In eleven minutes the nest was tilled 
and smoothed over. Ammophila then flew away and returned three 
times, remaining away eight minutes at a time. The nest which 
the mother wasp was soon to leave forever, seemed to have had a 
strange attraction for her. The last time she returned (at 10:27) 
she carried pieces of leaves and earth over the nest as if she wished 
to obliterate every trace of the work. 
This small Ammophila, having to bring in three caterpillars, 
which necessitates making three hunting trips to store the nest, is, 
of course, benefited by closing up the nest each time before de- 
parting to keep out the flies and Mutillids bent on mischief. Her 
larger sisters are powerful enough to carry oft the largest cater- 
pillars; they therefore capture a single victim large enough to sup- 
ply the larva and so have no need to close the nest while on the 
hunt, which may occupy from two to five hours. 
It is a strange sight to see a large Ammophila carry her heavy 
burden home to the nest. The grass green caterpillar and the 
slender black wasp with her red metallic wings and abdomen girdled 
with bright red form a marked contrast to the grey sand over 
which they glide. It is a sight that never fails to excite one’s in- 
terest to the utmost. One can not but admire the wasp for her 
immense strength and wonder that so small a creature can carry 
such a load. In spite of the disproportion between the wasp and 
the boat shaped burden, her rate of progress is rapid enough for she 
travels along at the rate of ten feet a minute over sticks, clumps of 
grass and inequalities of the surface. (Fig. 16.) 
The most wonderful thing about Ammophila , however, is the 
almost unerring manner with which she finds her way back to the 
nest. Sometimes, it is true, she will drop her burden temporarily 
to fly away and assure herself that she is on 'the right road. But 
usually she will march on uninterruptedly in one general direction 
and come exactly to her nest in spite of the hundreds of crooks and 
turns around the various obstructions in her path. 
Having arrived at the nest the caterpillar is laid down and the 
wasp goes inside to see that the way is clear and to determine 
whether the tunnel is large enough to admit the caterpillar, for the 
wasp always, before pulling the caterpillar in, brings out a number 
of mouthfuls of earth and on each trip approaches the caterpillar 
as if to measure its thickness. Sometimes only a few, and some- 
