The Languedocian Sphex 



pincers which are also used for digging, and 

 the tarsi, which serve as rubbish-rakes. 

 Then the miner flies off, but with a slow flight 

 and no sudden display of wing-power, a mani- 

 fest sign that the insect is not contemplating 

 a distant expedition. We can easily follow 

 it with our eyes and perceive the spot where 

 it alights, usually ten or twelve yards away. 

 At other times, it decides to wall<:. It goes 

 off and mai<^es hurriedly for a spot where we 

 will have the indiscretion to follow it, for our 

 presence does not trouble it at all. On reach- 

 ing its destination, either on foot or on the 

 wing, it looks round for some time, as we 

 gather from its undecided attitude and its 

 journeys hither and thither. It looks round; 

 at last it finds or rather retrieves something. 

 The object recovered is an Ephippiger, half- 

 paralysed, but still moving her tarsi, antennae 

 and ovipositor. She is a victim which the 

 Sphex certainly stabbed not long ago with a 

 few stings. After the operation, the Wasp 

 left her prey, an embarrassing burden amid 

 the suspense of house-hunting; she abandoned 

 it perhaps on the very spot where she cap- 

 tured it, contenting herself with making it 

 more or less conspicuous by placing it on some 

 grass-tuft, in order to find it more easily 

 153 



