138 INSECT LIFE x 



long fine threads, are the harness ropes. With 

 her mandibles and holding her head high, she grasps 

 one of them, passing it between her feet, and the 

 prey is dragged on its back. If some unevenness of 

 ground should oppose itself to this style of haulage, 

 she stops, clasps the ample provender, and trans- 

 ports it by very short flights, going on foot between 

 whiles whenever this is possible. One never sees 

 her undertake sustained flights for long distances 

 carrying prey, as do those strong cruisers, the 

 Bembex and Cerceris, which will carry perhaps for 

 a good half mile through the air, the former their 

 Diptera, the latter their weevils — very light prey 

 compared with the huge ephippiger. The over- 

 whelming size of its captive forces S. occitanica to 

 convey it along the ground — a means of transit both 

 slow and difficult. The same reason — namely, the 

 great size and weight of the prey — entirely upsets 

 the usual order followed by the Hymenoptera, in 

 their labours, — an order well known, and consisting in 

 first hollowing a burrow and then victualling it. 

 The prey not being disproportioned to the size of 

 the spoiler, facility of transport by flight allows the 

 Hymenopteron a choice as to the position of her 

 domicile. What matter if she has to hunt at con- 

 siderable distances ? Having made a capture, she 

 returns home with rapid flight ; it is indifferent to 

 her whether she is near or far. Therefore she pre- 

 fers the spot where she was born, and where her 

 predecessors have lived ; there she inherits deep 

 galleries, the accumulated labour of former genera- 

 tions ; with a little repair they can be used as avenues 

 to new chambers, better defended than would be a 



