THE SPHEGIDyE. 



219 



abdomen {Sphcx flavipcnnis), and it makes nests in the sand, in 

 which it lays an egg ; then it seeks the larvae of grasshoppers, 

 and places them in contact with the &^^, after having stung 

 them. Another kind, which is found in Langucdoc, attacks a 

 very large grasshopper ; and it is indeed surprising what very 

 large insects the SpJicgidcs can carry and introduce into their 

 nests. The females of the English species may often be seen 

 in the eastern counties coming out of holes in the banks, 

 and if they are watched, the process of their excavations is not 

 difficult to understand. When the little hole is dug sufficiently 

 deep in the soil, a tiny o.^^ is laid within, the female comes out 

 and stops up the opening with a piece of dust, and flies off in 



Female. 



Male. 



Aminophila sabulosa. 



search of a victim. It pounces upon some small caterpillar or 

 larva, or even small flies, stings one of them, and carries it off 

 bodily to its nest. The female can always discover the hole it 

 has made, and, after rolling away the earth that closes it up, the 

 future food of the young Sphex is pushed into the cavity, which 

 is then closed up from the outside. The activity, energy, and ex- 

 citement of the insect whilst all this is going on are very great 

 and it soon dies after the provisioning of the nest is completed. 



The genus Aviniophila contains one species, the true Sand 

 Wasp, which is very abundant in Europe. It is a slender, elongated 

 insect, with a red band across the lower half of the third, the 

 whole of the fourth, and the upper part of the fifth segment of 

 the abdomen. It has habits like those of the SpJicx just described, 

 but it invariably chooses the caterpillars of certain moths for the 

 prey of its larvae. 



There are some Sphegidcs in the tropics which have enormously 



