40 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



than that of bugs. The burrow of Astata ends in a 

 single cell. 



The whole of these mining wasps that we have 

 mentioned so far agree in the fact that they lay 

 up provisions for a progeny they will never see, 

 and having sealed up the cells or the burrows they 

 manifest no further concern in them. In the genus 

 Bembex, however, we find an advance upon this 

 condition of things, and an approach to the care 

 with which the social wasps feed the grubs of the 

 community continuously, or at least as frequently 

 as they require food. Bembex is not represented 

 among the wasps of Britain, but one species — 

 Bembex rostrata — is found in Southern Europe, and 

 Fabre has made it the subject of one of his remark- 

 able insect biographies, which should be read in 

 full by all interested in wasp life. Only the merest 

 summary can be given here, in the hope that the 

 full account will afterwards be sought by our 

 readers. 



The wasp drives her burrows in fine loose sand 

 and makes no effort to give them permanence by 

 cementing the walls. Instead of provisioning her 

 cells with sufficient food to last the grub until it 

 reaches its full size, she merely catches a two-winged 

 fly, which she does not paralyze, but kills, and 

 depositing it in the burrow, lays an egg upon it. 

 Her excavating work is done entirely by means of 

 the fore legs, which work with such rapidity that 

 the loose sand pours out in a stream from beneath 

 her. When the. dead fly is placed in this burrow 



