When the egg–laying time arrives the female secures her prey, which she either kills or paralyzes, places it in the nest, lays the egg upon it, and then, in most cases, closes the hole and takes no further interest in it, going on to make new nests from day to day. In some genera the female maintains a longer connection with her offspring, not bringing all the provision at once, but returning to feed the larva as it grows, and leaving the nest permanently only when the grub has spun its cocoon. The males never acquire this interest, so admirable for the development of character, and aid little, if at all, in the care of the family. The egg develops in from one to three days into a footless, maggot–like creature which feeds upon the store provided for it, increasing rapidly in size, and entering the pupal stage in from three days to two weeks. In the cocoon it passes through its final metamorphosis, emerging as a perfect insect, perhaps in two or three weeks, or, in many cases, after the winter months have passed and summer has come again. Most graceful and attractive of all the wasps—“_taille effilée, tournure svelte_,” as Fabre describes them, the Ammophiles, of all the inhabitants of the garden, hold the first place in our affections. Not so beautiful as the blue Pelopæus, nor so industrious as the little red–girdled Trypoxylon, their intelligence, their distinct individuality, and their obliging tolerance of our society make them an unfailing source of interest. They are, moreover, the most remarkable of all genera in their stinging habits, being supposed to use the nicest surgical skill in paralyzing their caterpillars; and few things have given us deeper pleasure than our success in following the activities and penetrating the secrets of their lives. In our garden we have two species of Ammophila, urnaria Cresson, and gracilis Cresson, both of them being very slender–bodied wasps of about an inch in length, gracilis all black, and urnaria with a red band around the front end of the abdomen. A. polita and A. vulgaris, which look much like urnaria, are common in the sandy fields west and south of Milwaukee. [Illustration: AMMOPHILA URNARIA CARRYING CATERPILLAR TO NEST]