90 INSECT LIFE vi 



booty were lawfully come by. Let me add, however, 

 to atone in some measure for the injury which my 

 suspicions may do to the character of the genus, 

 that I have seen the perfectly lawful capture of a 

 little cricket yet wingless by Tachytes tarsina, and 

 have also seen it hollow cells and store them with 

 prey bravely acquired. Thus I have only suspicions 

 to offer as to why the Sphex persists in descending 

 to the bottom of her hole before carrying in prey. 

 Is there some other end besides that of dislodging 

 a parasite which may have got in during the owner's 

 absence ? I despair of finding out ; who can in- 

 terpret the thousand manoeuvres of instinct ? Poor 

 human reason which cannot even explain the 

 wisdom of a Sphex ! 



At all events, it is proved that these manoeuvres 

 are singularly invariable, apropos of which I will 

 mention an experiment which greatly interested me. 

 At the moment when the Sphex makes her domi- 

 ciliary visit, I take the cricket and put it some way 

 off. The Sphex comes up, utters her usual cry, looks 

 round with astonishment, and seeing the game too 

 far off, comes out to seize and put it in the right 

 position. Then she goes down again without the 

 cricket. Same manoeuvre on my part, same dis- 

 appointment when she reappears. Again the prey 

 is brought to the mouth of the hole, and again the 

 Sphex goes down alone, and so on as long as my 

 patience holds out. Forty times on end have I 

 tried the experiment on the same individual ; her 

 persistence vanquished mine, and her tactics never 

 varied. 



Having proved the inflexible pertinacity of all 



