282 
SPHEX. 
meiits being of a brighter appearance than the 
rest of the body. It should be added, that the 
female of this species prepares several separate 
holes or nets as above-mentioned, in each of which 
she places a dead insect and an egg: each cell 
costing her the labour of about two days. 
The Sphe.v ^viatica of Linnaeus, which is of a 
black colour and slightly hairy, with brown wings, 
and the fore-part of the abdomen ferruginous with 
black bands, seizes caterpillars in a similar man- 
ner, burying one in every cell in which she de- 
posits an egg, and then closes up the cell. 
Sphex sahidosa Lin. is a black and hairy species, 
with the second and third joints of the abdomen 
ferruginous. It inhabits sandy and gravelly places, 
in which the female digs holes with her fore-feet, 
working in the manner of a dog, in order to form 
the cavity, in which she places either a spider or 
a caterpillar, after which she closes up the cavity, 
having first laid her egg in the dead insect. Lin- 
naeus in his description of this insect contradicts 
the generic character, since he observes that it 
has a retractile snout containing the tongue. 
Many of the extra-European Spheges are in- 
sects of a very considerable size. The whole 
genus is very much allied to those of Vespa and 
Apis. 
