IV 



CERCERIS TUBERCULATA 



With my mind full of the great deeds of the 

 Buprestis hunter, I watched for an opportunity of 

 observing in my turn the labours of the Cerceris, 

 and I watched so closely that finally I got my 

 chance. True, it was not the Hymenopteron cele- 

 brated by Dufour, with such sumptuous provisions 

 that when dug up they made one think of the 

 powder from a nugget broken by the miner's pick- 

 axe in some gold field : it was a closely related 

 species, a giant brigand which contents itself with 

 more modest prey — in short, Cerceris tuberculata or 

 C. major, the largest and strongest of the genus. 



The last fortnight in September is the time 

 when our Hymenopteron makes its burrows, and 

 buries in the depths the prey destined for its brood. 

 The position of the domicile, always sagaciously 

 chosen, is governed by those mysterious laws vary- 

 ing with the species, but unchangeable for any one 

 of them. The Cerceris of Leon Dufour requires a 

 horizontal, beaten, compact soil, like that of a path, 

 to avoid landslips and changes which would ruin 

 its gallery with the first rain. Ours, on the 



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