The Hunting Wasps 



care to guess the myriad numbers of the 

 Ladybirds collected there. Those Aphis- 

 eaters had certainly not been attracted by the 

 hope of food to the top of the Ventoux, some 

 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. Veg- 

 etation is too scanty up there; and no Plant- 

 louse ever ventured so high. 



On another occasion, in June, on the table- 

 land of Saint-Amans, a neighbour of the 

 Ventoux, at a height of 2,400 feet, I wit- 

 nessed a similar gathering, only much less 

 numerous. At the most prominent part of 

 the plateau, on the edge of a bluff of perpen- 

 dicular rocks, stands a cross with a pedestal 

 of hewn stone. On each face of this pedestal 

 and on the rocks supporting it, the same 

 Beetles, the Seven-spot Ladybirds of the Ven- 

 toux, had gathered in their legions. The in- 

 sects were mostly stationary; but, wherever 

 the sun beat at all fiercely, there was a con- 

 tinual exchange between the newcomers, anx- 

 ious to find room, and the old occupants of 

 the wayside cross, who took to their wings 

 only to return after a short flight. 



Nothing here, any more than on the sum- 

 mit of the Ventoux, was able to tell me the 

 cause of these strange meetings on arid spots, 

 containing no Plant-lice and possessing no 

 248 



