166 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



As captivity might possibly result in a few anomalies of 

 action, I de ided to inquire how matters went forward in 

 the open. In the neighbourhood of some colonies of 

 Phiianthidae I lay in wait, watching for perhaps a longer 

 time than the question justified, as it was already settled 

 by what occurred in captivity. My scrupulous watching 

 at various times was rewarded. The majority of the 

 hunters immediately entered their nests, carrying the bees 

 pressed against their bodies ; some halted on the neigh- 

 bouring undergrowth ; and these I saw treating the bee 

 in the usual manner, and lapping the honey from its 

 mouth. After these preparations the corpse was placed 

 in the larder. All doubt was thus destroyed : the bees 

 provided for the larvae are previously carefully emptied 

 of their honey. 



Since we are dealing with the subject, let us take the 

 opportunity of inquiring into the customs of the 

 Philanthus in a state of freedom. Making use of her 

 victims when absolutely lifeless, so that they would 

 putrefy in the course of a few days, this hunter of bees 

 cannot adopt the customs of certain insects which para- 

 lyse their prey, and fill their cellars before laying an egg. 

 She must surely be obliged to follow the method of the 

 Bembex, whose larva receives, at intervals, the necessary 

 nourishment ; the amount mcreasing as the larva grows. 

 The facts confirm this deduction. I spoke just now of 

 the tediousness of my watching when watching the 

 colonies of the Philanthus. It was perhaps even more 

 tedious than when I was keeping an eye upon the 

 Bembex. Before the burrows of Cerceris tuberculus 

 and other devourers of the weevil, and before that of the 

 yellow-winged Sphex, the slayer of crickets, there is 



