Transactions Texas Academy of Science. 
35 
when the wasp was out of sight below to move the prey to a little 
distance, with the result that when the wasp came up, she brought 
her cricket to the same spot and left it as before, while she visited 
the interior of the nest. Since he repeated this experiment about 
forty times, and always with the same result, he concluded that 
nothing less than the performance of a certain series of acts in a 
certain order would satisfy her impulse. The Peckhams tried the 
same experiments and found the American S. ichneumonae would, 
after being fooled five or six times, carry the grasshopper inside in 
various ways but without first running down. It is thus apparent 
that wasps may perform certain instinctive acts though they be out 
of the usual routine, as was the case with my Ammophila which 
was about to procure the caterpillar before she had dug her nest. 
The stinging habit of Ammophila and the resultant condition 
of the caterpillars have long been subjects of both the reason and 
the imagination among naturalists. I here append my own ob- 
servations on the condition of the caterpillars. A discussion of the 
subject follows in the concluding chapter of this paper. 
Notes on the condition of Ammophila ? s caterpillars. 
I. No. 16. July 22d, 9 a. m., three small caterpillars, all re- 
spond to stimulation. 
July 23d, 6 p. m., caterpillar containing egg dead, others still 
alive. 
II. No. 28. August 17th, caterpillar responds to stimulation 
at both ends of body. 
August 20th, more lively than on August 17th. 
August 23d, it is nearly dead. 
III. No. 55. Egg laid 4 :50 p. m., September 1st. Caterpillars 
move both ends of body spontaneously. 
September 3d, caterpillar passed foeces twice and is more lively 
than the day before, moving front legs and posterior end of body 
spontaneously. 
September 4th, 7 a. m., egg apparently hatched, larva occupying 
same position as egg. 4 p. m., caterpillar has passed foeces again ; 
will move only on stipulation; larva growing. 
September 5th, 9 :30, larva 6 mm. long, still occupying same po- 
sition ; caterpillar shrunken and nearly dead ; can move head end 
on stimulation. 
September 6th, a. m., larva nearly as long as caterpillar is wide. 
Sucking movements visible in larva. 
September 8th, larva has sucked the skin of caterpillar dry and 
is devouring parts of this. 
