196 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
phila suspiciosa. The wasps were in large numbers, and 
from sunrise to sunset were continually on the move, scam- 
pering over the ground with wonderful activity in their 
endeavour to find a suitable locality to establish their 
nest. A slight elevation in the ground is the spot usually 
chosen by the wasps for their digging operations, and thus 
each hilleock becomes a mass of independent nests, each 
carefully disguised by the wasps. No visible signs of the 
operation of the wasp, therefore, exist, save only a half- 
finished tunnel, which some wasp had begun, and then, 
finding it unsuitable, had abandoned. Before starting 
to burrow the wasp carefully surveys the ground, and hay- 
ing chosen an apparently suitable site, begins to dig. 
After digging about half an inch deep she may suddenly 
cease operations and go in search of another site. This 
procedure is often repeated three or four times before the 
wasp finally decides the site for her nest. She then 
rapidly proceeds with the digging operations, using the 
strong mandibles for digging and the legs for throwing 
back the finer material often two or three inches from the 
mouth of the burrow. The larger pellets of earth she 
seized with her mandibles, and backing upward out of the 
tunnel, deposited them about one or two inches from the 
burrow. When completed, the burrow is a simple shaft, 
with one enlarged cell at its termination, and in this cell 
is stored the caterpillar on which she lays an egg. As 
soon as the tunnel was completed the wasp emerged, and 
after carefully circling round the tunnel entrance, set off 
at a run across the ground without attempting to fly. 
After travelling about-15 feet from the tunnel she stopped 
at a green tuft of grass, and from it seized a green cater- 
pillar, about one inch in length, in her mandibles, and 
straddling it, commenced the return journey. The cater- 
pillar was quite limp, and had evidently been stung some 
time previously, as uo attempts were made by the wasp to 
sting the caterpillar, which, beyond a slight twitching, was 
apparently lifeless when taken off the grass. The journey 
back to the burrow was accomplished without incident, and 
the caterpillar dropped just at the edge of the entrance. 
The wasp then descended the tunnel, probably to see that 
nothing had interfered during her absence; but soon after 
reappeared with her head facing the entrance, and seizing 
