Wasps, Bees, and Ants 493 
wasp lives through the winter, those that come out in the spring or summer 
perishing in the autumn.” 
The nest-making habits of any solitary wasp, when carefully observed, 
will prove to be of absorbing interest. On the broad salt marshes of the 
Fig. 694. —Nesting-grounds of the solitary wasp, Ammophila sp., in the salt marshes 
of San Francisco Bay. 
western shore of San Francisco Bay near Stanford University I have often 
watched an interesting species of wasp at work. This is one of the genus 
Ammophila, the thread-waisted sand-diggers. The marshes are nearly 
covered with a dense growth of a low fleshy-leaved plant, the samphire or 
pickle-weed (Salicornia), but here and there are small, perfectly bare, level, 
sandy places, which shine white and sparkling in the sun because of a thin 
incrustation of salt. In September these bare places are taken possession 
Fig. 695.—Ammophila putting inchworm into nest-burrow. (From life; natural size.) 
of by many female Ammophilas, which make short vertical nest-burrows all 
over the ground. An Ammophila having chosen a site for its nest bites 
out a small circular piece of the salty crust, and with its strong jaws digs out 
bit by bit a little well. Each pellet dug out is carried away by the wasp, 
flying a foot or two from the mouth of the tunnel, and dropped. To emerge 
