94 INSECT LIFE vii 



retreats where they would be beyond the investiga- 

 tions of the Sphex. In a few moments I find as 

 many crickets as I could wish, and all my prepara- 

 tions are made. I ascend to the top of my 

 observatory, establish myself on the flat ground in 

 the midst of the Sphex colony and wait. 



A huntress comes, conveys her cricket to the 

 mouth of her hole and goes down alone. The 

 cricket is speedily replaced by one of mine, but 

 placed at some distance from the hole. The Sphex 

 returns, looks round, and hurries to seize her too 

 distant prey. I am all attention. Nothing on 

 earth would induce me to give up my part in the 

 drama which I am about to witness. The frightened 

 cricket springs away. The Sphex follows closely, 

 reaches it, darts upon it. Then there is a struggle 

 in the dust when sometimes conqueror, sometimes 

 conquered is uppermost or undermost. Success, 

 equal for a moment, finally crowns the aggressor. 

 In spite of vigorous kicks, in spite of bites from its 

 pincer-like jaws, the cricket is felled and stretched on 

 its back. 



The murderess soon makes her arrangements. 

 She places herself body to body with her adversary, 

 but in a reverse position, seizes one of the bands at 

 the end of the cricket's abdomen and masters with 

 her forefeet the convulsive efforts of its great hind- 

 thighs. At the same moment her intermediate feet 

 squeeze the panting sides of the vanquished cricket, 

 and her hind ones press like two levers on its face, 

 causing the articulation of the neck to gape open. 

 The Sphex then curves her abdomen vertically, so 

 as to offer a convex surface impossible for the 



