36 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



slender " pedicel." A well-known species is Ammo- 

 fihila sabulosa, which is entirely black save for a 

 band of red which includes half the hind body and 

 a third of the pedicel. There are many other 

 species in different parts of the world, and their 

 habits appear to be very similar, except that each 

 species seems to have its own favourite caterpillar 

 with which to provision its nest. 



Sphex, during the time it is not excavating or 

 hunting, occupies the vestibule afforded by the 

 horizontal burrow, and passes the night there. 

 Ammo-phila does not. When her work is over for 

 the day, she literally " shuts up shop " by stopping 

 the entrance with a small stone. In recent years 

 we have had accounts of its operations from Fabre 

 and Marchal, but as long ago as the summer of 1667 

 our countryman, John Ray, and his friend Wil- 

 lughby, were observing it, and Ray has told us 

 in his History of Insects what they saw. 



The Sand Wasp was dragging along a green 

 caterpillar three times its own size. When it had 

 dragged this load for a distance of about fifteen feet, it 

 came to a hole previously dug in the sand, and left the 

 caterpillar beside it whilst it set to work to remove 

 a pellet of earth that blocked the mouth of the 

 shaft. The wasp descended into the cavity, but 

 soon reappeared and took the caterpillar again in 

 tow. They both disappeared below, and the wasp 

 came up alone after an interval and busied itself 

 in rolling pieces of earth into the hole — " at intervals 

 scratching the dust into it like a dog with its fore 



