The Hunting Wasps 



when he leaves the hall which he is excavating 

 in order to come and feel his beloved pellet 

 and bring it a little nearer to him. 



The inference to be drawn from the details 

 which I have related is manifest. The fact 

 that every Languedocian Sphex surprised in 

 her mining-operations, even though it be at 

 the very beginning of the digging, at the first 

 stroke of the tarsus in the dust, afterwards, 

 when the home is prepared, makes a short 

 excursion, now on foot, anon flying, and in- 

 variably finds herself in possession of a victim 

 already stabbed, already paralysed, compels 

 us to conclude, in all certainty, that this Wasp 

 does her work as a huntress first and as a 

 burrower after, so that the place of the cap- 

 ture decides the place of the home. 



This reversal of procedure, which causes 

 the food to be prepared before the larder, 

 whereas hitherto we have seen the larder 

 come before the food, I attribute to the 

 weight of the Sphex' prey, a prey which it is 

 not possible to carry far through the air. It 

 is not that the Languedocian Sphex is ill-built 

 for flight: on the contrary, she can soar mag- 

 nificently; but the prey which she hunts would 

 weigh her down if she had no other support 

 than her wings. She needs the support of 

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