CHAPTER XV 



THE FLY-HUNT 



A FTER our list, in the last chapter, of the 

 -^^ fare on which the Bembex feed in the 

 larval form, it behoves us to seek the motive 

 that induces these Wasps to adopt a method 

 of victualling so exceptional among the dig- 

 ger-insects. Why, instead of previously stor- 

 ing a sufficient quantity of provisions on 

 which the egg could be laid — which would 

 enable the mother to close the cell immedi- 

 ately afterwards and never to return to it — 

 why, I ask, does she tie herself down for a 

 fortnight to this incessant, toilsome coming 

 and going from the burrow to the fields and 

 from the fields to the burrow, forcing her way 

 each time through the unstable sand, either 

 to go hunting or to bring the larva her latest 

 capture? It is, first and foremost, a ques- 

 tion of having fresh victuals for her larvae : 

 an all-important question, for the grub abso- 

 lutely refuses any high or tainted game. Like 

 the grubs of the other Diggers, it wants fresh 

 meat and nothing but fresh meat. 



We have seen in the case of the Cerceres, 

 294 



