DIGGER wasp and GRASSHOPPER. 
121 
num, for some unaccountable reason called rattlesnake-fern. 
This is the largest by far in the genus and where it grows at all 
is apt to be very abundant. It favors sloping ground in rich 
woods, especially in the neighborhood of streams. The plants 
vary extraordinarily in size, sometimes maturing and fruiting 
when barely six inches high, and on the other hand sometimes 
attaining a height of two or three feet. I once found one in 
Hudson, N. H., which measured three feet two inches in height 
and which had a stalk not less than an inch in diameter two 
inches from the ground. The leaf in this species is large, thin 
and beautifully cut into numerous more or less toothed divisions? 
and it spreads out horizontally from near the middle of the stem. 
In the next number I propose to consider the relations of 
these different species to each other and to the genus Ophioglos" 
sum, which is the type of the family. 
Digger Wasp and Grasshopper. 
BY THEODORA RICHARDSON. 
I observed an interesting episode in wasp life on August 18. 
We saw one of the all metallic blue digger wasps dig a hole in 
the hard earth by the roadside. When the excavation was com¬ 
pleted, she dragged a large brown grasshopper, our largest cin¬ 
namon-colored one, about two and one-half inches long, to the 
hole and, seeing us, was star.led and flew away. We withdrew, 
but returning later, dug open the cell and found this great or- 
thopteron in a sort of comatose state, such as William Hamil¬ 
ton Gibson describes in his “ Sharp Eyes,” in connection with 
the mud dauber’s nest filled with paralyzed spiders. The crea¬ 
ture would give spasmodic movements of the hind legs when 
touched, and on one side the egg of the wasp, I suppose, was 
deposited near the joining of the hind leg and the body of the 
grasshopper. It was small and white, and seemed to be but a 
single one. I kept the insect, to see how long it would live, 
and it lived two days. 
