The Life of the Fly 



carnage; and the Volucella is thickset and cor- 

 pulent and sedate in her movements. Never 

 will the Wasp take that unwieldy insect for 

 one of her own kind. The difference is too 

 great. 



Poor Volucella, mimesis has not taught you 

 enough. You ought — this is the essential point 

 — to have adopted a Wasp's shape; and that 

 you forgot to do: you remained a fat Fly, 

 easily recognizable. Nevertheless, you pene- 

 trate into the terrible cavern ; you are able to 

 stay there for a long time, without danger, as 

 the eggs profusely strewn on the wrapper of 

 the Wasps' nest show. How do you set about 

 it? 



Let us, first of all, remember that the Bum- 

 ble-bee Fly does not enter the enclosure in 

 which the combs are heaped: she keeps to 

 the outer surface of the paper rampart and 

 there lays her eggs. Let us, on the other hand, 

 recall the Polistes^ placed in the company of 

 the Wasps in my vivarium. Here of a surety 

 is one who need not have recourse to mimicry 

 to find acceptance. She belongs to the guild, 

 she is a Wasp herself. Any of us that had not 

 the trained eye of the entomologist would con- 

 fuse the two species. Well, this stranger, as 



*A species of Wasp that builHs her nest in trees. — 

 Translator's Note. 



258 



