Transactions Texas Academy of Science. 
67 
tinuous vibration, giving her a most comical appearance. Three 
feet from -the nest the spider lay on top of a pinnatifid leaf of 
Achillia, excellently adapted to hold the spider and keep it out of 
reach of the many ants everywhere running around in great num- 
bers. (Fig. 5.) During the hour and eight minutes that it took 
to dig the nest (from 9:56 to 11:04), the wasp made six visits to 
the spider after intervals of one, five, nine, thirteen, thirteen, and 
thirteen minutes, each time returning to the nest in the same ex- 
cited manner. The visit was sometimes made partly on the wing, 
the wasp flying from one of the intervening plants to another. Her 
sense of direction was, however, not absolutely true, for only once 
did I see her go straight to the spider. Usually she passed it sev- 
eral times before coming upon it. On the way back, the nest was 
found without much difficulty. 
At 11 :04 the nest was apparently finished, for at this time the 
wasp ran over to the spider again, grasped it by one of the coxae 
and advanced with it to within fifteen inches of the nest, where she 
dropped it to reconnoitre the ground and re-examine the nest. 
The next advance was to within one and one-half inches of the en- 
trance, when another survey had to be undertaken. The next spot 
was within an inch of the nest which was again examined. As- 
sured that all was right, the spider was once more picked up, and 
this time taken in. In being taken in, the spider first took a posi- 
tion with its long axis across the entrance; but the wasp, which 
had backed in, got hold of the posterior end of the spider and 
pulled it inside. It seemed to go in smoothly, though two of the 
legs were directed backwards. The wasp remained inside for fif- 
teen minutes and finally appeared scratching in sand and stepping 
it down into the nest. When this was nearly full, she pulled down 
the dry sand from above the entrance, biting it loose with her man- 
dibles. After a few minutes rest in the shady corner of a human 
foot-print, she returned, smoothed over the entrance for a moment 
or two in a wider circle than before and flew away. 
I immediately dug for the spider that had been just entombed 
and came across it four inches from the opening of the nest and 
three inches below the surface. It was lying in a chamber large 
enough to hold it with outstretched legs. 
The egg, one mm. in length, was placed on the dorsolateral side 
of the abdomen near the pedicil, as shown in figure 12, which is 
natural size. The spider had been stung to death since it never 
responded to stimulation and was soon overtaken by mould. The 
egg never hatched. 
