174 INSECT LIFE xii 



according as the conditions are normal or other- 

 wise, is the strange antithesis presented by the insect. 

 Other examples drawn from the Sphegidae will 

 confirm us in this proposition. Sphex albisecta 

 attacks middle-sized Acridians, the various species 

 scattered in the neighbourhood of her burrow all 

 furnishing a tribute. From the abundance of these 

 Acrididae the chase is carried on near at hand. 

 When the vertical well-like burrow is ready, the 

 Sphex merely flies over the ground near, and espies 

 an Acridian feeding in the sunshine. To pounce 

 and sting while it struggles is done in a moment. 

 After some fluttering of the wings, which unfold 

 like carmine or azure fans, some moving of feet up 

 and down, the victim becomes motionless. Next it 

 must be got home by the Sphex on foot. She 

 performs this toilsome operation as do her kindred, 

 dragging her game between her feet, and holding 

 one of the antennae in her mandibles. If a grass 

 thicket has to be traversed, she hops and flutters 

 from blade to blade, keeping firm hold of her prey. 

 When within a few feet of her dwelling she executes 

 the same manoeuvre as does S. occitanica, but without 

 attaching the same importance to it, for sometimes 

 she neglects it. The game is left on the road, and 

 though no apparent danger threatens the dwelling, 

 she hurries toward its mouth, and puts in her head 

 repeatedly, or even partly enters, then returns to the 

 Acridian, brings it nearer, and again leaves it to revisit 

 her burrow, and so on several times, always with eager 

 haste. 



These repeated visits have sometimes annoying 

 results. The victim, rashly abandoned on a slope. 



