2i6 INSECT LIFE xv 



shown both by direct observation and by experiments 

 on their sensibility with the point of a needle. But 

 Ammophila sabulosa and hirsuta catch huge prey, 

 whose weight, as already said, is fifteen times that of 

 the captor. Can such giant prey be treated like a 

 poor Looper ? Can a single stab subdue the monster 

 and render it incapable of harm ? If the fearsome 

 gray worm strike the cell walls with its strong body, 

 will it not endanger the egg or the little larva ? One 

 dares not imagine a tete-a-tete in the small cell at 

 the bottom of the burrow between the frail, newly- 

 hatched creature and this kind of dragon — still able 

 to coil and uncoil its lithe folds. 



My suspicions were heightened by examination as 

 to the sensitiveness of the caterpillar. While the small 

 game of Ammophila holosericea and hirsuta struggle 

 violently if pricked elsewhere than in the part 

 stabbed, the large caterpillars of A. sabulosa, and above 

 all of A. hirsuta, remain motionless, no matter which 

 segment be stimulated. They show no contortions 

 or sudden twisting of the body, the steel point only 

 producing as a sign faint shudderings of the skin. 

 As the safety of a larva provided with such huge prey 

 requires, motion and feeling are almost quite de- 

 stroyed. Before introducing it into the burrow, the 

 Hymenopteron turns it into a mass — inert indeed, 

 yet not dead. 



I have been able to watch the Ammophila use 

 her instrument on the robust caterpillar, and never 

 did the infused science of instinct show me anything 

 more striking. With a friend — alas ! soon after 

 snatched from me by death — I was returning from the 

 tableland of Les Angles after preparing snares to put 



