On the next morning, at half after eight o’clock, we took Lady Sphex down to her home, and placed the mouth of the bottle so that when she came out she had to enter the nest. This she did, remaining below, however, only a moment. When she came up to the surface she stood still and looked about for a few seconds, and then flew away. It surprised us that having been absent from the place for so many hours, she made no study of the locality as she had done before. We thought it a very unpromising sign, and had great fears that she was deserting the place and that we should see her no more. One would need to watch a wasp through the long hours of a broiling hot day to appreciate the joy that we felt when at nine o’clock we saw her coming back. She had no difficulty in finding her nest, nor did she feel any hesitation as to what ought to be done next, but fell to work at once at carrying out more dirt. The weather, although still hot, had become cloudy and so threatening that we expected a down–pour of rain every moment, but this seemed to make no difference to her. Load after load was brought up, until, at the end of an hour, everything seemed completed to her satisfaction. She came to the entrance and flew about, now this way, and now that, repeating the locality study in the most thorough manner, and then went away. At the expiration of an hour we saw her approaching with a large light green meadow–grasshopper, which was held in the mouth and supported by the fore legs, which were folded under. On arriving, the prey was placed, head first, near the entrance, while the wasp went in, probably to reassure herself that all was right. Soon she appeared at the door of the nest and remained motionless for some moments, gazing intently at her treasure. Then seizing it (we thought by an antenna) she dragged it head first into the tunnel.
The laying of the egg did not detain her long. She was up in a moment and began at once to throw earth into the nest. After a little she went in herself, and we could plainly hear her humming as she pushed the loose material down with her head. When she resumed the work outside we interrupted her to catch a little fly that we had already driven off several times just as it was about to enter the nest. The Sphex was disturbed and flew away, and this gave us an opportunity to open the burrow. The grasshopper was placed on its back, with its head next to the blind end of the pocket and the legs protruding up into the tunnel.