Ill CERCERIS BUPRESTICIDA 45 



genus Buprestis ! Our Hymenopteron had not committed 

 the smallest error. How much there is to learn from this 

 intelligent industry in so sm.all an insect ! What value 

 Latreille would have attached to the vote of this Cerceris 

 in favour of the natural system ! ^ 



Let us pass on to the various contrivances of the 

 Cerceris in making and provisioning her nest. I have 

 already said that she chooses ground whose surface is 

 beaten, compact, and solid. I should add that this ground 

 must be dry and in full sunshine. This choice shows an 

 intelligence, or, if you like, an instinct, which one is tempted 

 to believe is the result of experience. Crumbly earth or 

 mere sand would of course be easier to work, but then how 

 construct an orifice which will remain wide open for ingress 

 and exit, and a gallery whose walls will not constantly fall 

 in, yield, and become blocked by the least rain ? The 

 choice is therefore both reasonable and perfectly well cal- 

 culated. 



Our burrowing Hymenopteron hollows her gallery with her 

 mandibles and front tarsi, which accordingly are furnished 

 with stiff points to act as rakes. The orifice must not only 

 have the diameter of the miner's body, but be able to admit a 

 prey of larger bulk. This shows admirable forethought. As 

 the Cerceris digs deeper she brings out the rubbish, and this 

 makes the heap which I compared to a tiny molehill. The 

 gallery is not vertical, as this would have exposed it to be 

 filled up by wind or other causes. Not far from the start- 

 ing-point it makes an angle ; its length is from seven to 

 eight inches. At the far end the industrious mother 

 establishes the cradle of her progeny. Five cells, separate 

 and independent of one another, are hollowed in the shape 

 and nearly of the size of an olive ; within they are solid 

 and polished. Each can contain three Buprestids, the 

 ordinary allowance for a larva. The Cerceris lays an egg 

 amid the three victims, and then stops up the gallery with 



1 The beetles dug up belonged to the following species : — Buprestis 

 octoguttata, B. bifasciata, B. pruni, B. tarda, B. biguttata, B. micans, 

 B. flavomaculata, B. chrysostigma, B. novem-maculata. 



