THE FOSSORIAL HYMENOPTERA. 213 



with great dexterity. When they are adults their nourishment 

 consists of fluids, such as the honey from flowers and the sap or 

 gum of trees, but when they are larvse they are carnivorous, and 

 can only exist upon living prey. Consequently the mothers are 

 obliged to chase other insects, and to catch them for their larvs, 

 and it is therefore a curious and suggestive sight to witness a non- 

 carnivorous insect hunting prey for its carnivorous young, which 

 it is never destined to see. There are only two kinds of in- 

 dividuals amongst these Hymenoptera, namely, males and females, 

 and there are no special workers or neuters, as there are amongst 

 wasps, bees, and ants. The females are always solitary, and work 

 away at the building of their nests, and supply the young with 

 food without any help whatever. Every female chooses an ap- 

 propriate place, and each species has its particular fancies with 

 regard to the future position of its young ; the locality may be 

 chosen in the earth, a cliff, a wall, or in the stump of a bush. 

 They often avail themselves of cavities formed by Nature, or of 

 fissures and cracks, but the proper shaped hole is always formed 

 with great energy and intelligence. The mandibles are the only 

 instruments and tools, though the legs with their spines act as 

 rakes to scrape out and eject the portions of earth detached with 

 the jaws, but the industry and perseverance of the insects are so 

 constant, and their patience is so wonderful, that a small gallery is 

 soon dug out, and an oval shaped cell is made at the bottom 

 of it ; sometimes several cells are excavated, but every species has 

 its peculiar arrangement as regards the number of the chambers. 



The chamber being formed, the SpJicx, the Pompilus, the 

 Crabro, or the Odynenis, as the case may be, must immediately 

 undertake to store up provisions within it, and therefore other 

 insects are hunted, each species having its particular prey. Some 

 like caterpillars, others the larvae of Coleoptera, and a few even 

 attack spiders ; and the Sphex is gifted with that peculiar instinct 

 which has already been noticed in the Iclmeumotis, for if it 

 obtains a larva belonging to an insect which grows to a con- 

 siderable size, it only places one in each chamber; but if the 

 larvze are small, several are introduced, and if they are minute 

 it hunts down a crowd of them. When it seizes its prey, the 

 fossorial Hymeiioptera pricks it with its sting, the venom of 



