The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



with very few exceptions, I found Meloe- 

 larvae, motionless in the silky down of the 

 thorax. I may also mention, as infested by 

 these larvae, an Ammophila {A. hirsuta) ^^ 

 who victuals her burrows with a caterpillar 

 in early spring, while her kinswomen build 

 their nests in autumn. This Wasp merely 

 grazes, so to speak, the surface of a flower; 

 I catch her; there are Meloes moving about 

 her body. It is clear that neither the Drone- 

 flies nor the Bluebottles, whose larvae live in 

 putrefying matter, nor yet the Ammophilae 

 who victual theirs with caterpillars, could 

 ever have carried the larvae which invaded 

 them into cells filled with honey. These 

 larvae therefore had gone astray; and in- 

 stinct, as does not often happen, was here at 

 fault. 



Let us now turn our attention to the young 

 Meloes waiting expectant upon the camomile- 

 flowers. There they are, ten, fifteen or 

 more, lodged half-way down the florets of a 

 single blossom or in their interstices; it 

 therefore needs a certain degree of scrutiny 

 to perceive them, their hiding-place being the 



1 For the Wasp known as the Hairy Ammophila, who 

 feeds her young on the Grey Worm, the caterpillar of 

 the Turnip Moth, cf. The Hunting Wasps, chaps, xviii. to 

 XX. — Translator's Note. 



96 



