CH. VI.] THE SOLITARY WASP. 117 



diminished the bulk of the animal, without depriving- 

 the young- worm of any part of the food destined 

 for its support. Those solitary wasps effect every 

 thing by main force ; they seldom or never resort 

 to stratagem, but boldly, and with the most im- 

 petuous courage, pounce at once upon their prey. 

 Sometimes they light upon certain species of spi- 

 ders which fabricate no web, but hunt about fields 

 in pursuit of game. In the hope of catching some 

 unwary fly, the treacherous spider counterfeits 

 death ; when the wasp darts on it with a blow, and 

 rising into the air, amputates all the limbs of its 

 victim. 



There is one species of these insects which carry 

 on an exterminating warfare against the honey and 

 the solitary bees. As soon as one of these bee- 

 devouring wasps has prepared in the sand a little 

 hole destined to become a habitation for its own 

 young, and a grave for the bee, it makes towards 

 those flowers to which its prey resort ; the moment 

 one of these little creatures has been perceived by 

 the wasp, it darts on its victim with the rapidity of 

 lightning, and with one blow of its sting puts an 

 end to its industrious and useful career. 



As each female, says Latreille, lays five or six 

 eggs, it follows that she destroys as many bees. In 

 a space one hundred and twenty feet long, he counted 

 fifty or sixty females preparing their nests ; conse- 

 quently they would kill three hundred bees. Now 

 supposing a surface of ground of two square 

 leagues infested in fifty places by a small number 

 of these apivorous females, they would destroy 

 within this range fifteen thousand bees. 



Reaumur says, that in the woods and plains of 

 the Isle of France no hive-bees are to be found — 

 while they abound and yield much honey in the 

 Isle of Bourbon ; and the absence of this useful in- 

 sect is perhaps justly attributed to the great number 

 of wasps which infest the former island. 



