The Bembex 



gives way as the insect proceeds. In that 

 underground dweUing, the only room with 

 steady walls is the spacious cell where the 

 larva lives amid the remnants of Its fort- 

 night's feast; the narrow corridor which the 

 mother enters to reach the flat at the back 

 or to come out and go hunting collapses each 

 time, at least in the front part dug out of 

 very dry sand, which repeated exits and en- 

 trances make looser still. Each time there- 

 fore that the Wasp goes In or out, she has 

 to clear herself a passage through the debris. 

 Going out presents no difficulty, even 

 should the sand retain the consistency which 

 It might have at the start, when first dis- 

 turbed: the insect's movements are free, it 

 is safe under cover, it can take Its time and 

 use Its tarsi and mandibles without undue 

 hurry. Going in Is a very different matter. 

 The Bembex is hampered by her prey, which 

 her legs hold clasped to her body; and the 

 miner Is thus deprived of the free use of her 

 tools. And a still graver circumstance is 

 this: brazen parasites, veritable bandits In 

 ambush, crouch here and there in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the burrow, spying on the 

 mother Wasp as she makes her laborious en- 

 trance, so that they may rush In and lay 

 277 



