INSECTS OF PREY. 55 



nate bee ventures at this time to approach its home, 

 the wasp pounces upon it as a hawk would pounce 

 upon a sparrow, seizes it by the back of the neck, 

 carries it to the ground, and placing; it by the side of 

 a small stone or clod of earth, she turns it round upon 

 its back. Then standing upon its belly in an attitude 

 of conscious triumph, she darts her sting" into the 

 lower part of its head, in such a manner as to stupify 

 j it, but not to kill it outright. As soon as she has in 

 this manner laid in a sufficient store of half-dead 

 bees, she closes up the entrance*. 



Several species of this family of wasps (^Cerceris 

 mirita, Latr., and C qitadrifasciatay Bosc) are 

 of essential service to agriculturists by provisioning 

 their nests with destructive weevils (^Curculioiiidce) ^ 

 so injurious to orchards and nurseries f- Other 

 famihes of this order in a similar way provide for 

 their progeny a supply of living insects of ditferent 

 species, of which interesting accounts have been 

 given by more than one naturalist |. 



The insects, however, of these marauding tribes 

 are not permitted to carry on their depredations on 

 their more peaceful neighbours with impunity ; for 

 nature has provided other races of animals to make 

 prey of them. We do not allude merely to birds 

 and reptiles, which devour as many of those carni- 

 vorous wasps as they can catch ; for there is also a 

 numerous tribe of insects who have the address to 

 foil them at their own weapons. All the careful 

 stratagems of the mason-wasp (Odynerus murarius, 

 Latr), in rearing her turretted outworks to defend 

 her premises while she excavates her galleries §, 

 often prove ineffectual in guarding against the insi- 



* Wa'.ck. ; Latreille, Annates du Museum, torn, xiv.; and 

 Bosc. Ann. Je I'Agric, vol. liii. 

 t Bosc, Ann. de I'Agric, vol. liii. 

 I Sec Insect Architecture, pp. 26—33. § Ibid., pp. 30—32. 



