The Hunting Wasps 



culty did not now arise. However active 

 the mother-nurse may be, she Is obviously 

 not equal to such an output. She had to be 

 constantly hunting to feed one larva, her own; 

 how could she possibly manage to provide 

 for a dozen greedy mouths? The result of 

 this enormous increase of family can only 

 be want, or even starvation, not for the Fly's 

 maggots, which, developing more quickly 

 than the Bembex' larva, get ahead of it and 

 profit by the days when there is still plenty 

 for everybody, as their host is too young to 

 need much, but certainly for that unfortunate 

 host, who arrives at the transformation- 

 period without being able to mals;e up for lost 

 time. Besides, even if the first visitors, in 

 becoming pupae, leave him the free run of 

 the table, others appear upon the scene, so 

 long as the mother continues to come to the 

 nest, and complete his starvation. 



In burrows invaded by numerous parasites, 

 the Bembex' larva is in point of fact much 

 smaller than one would suppose from the 

 heap of food consumed, the remains of which 

 encumber the cell. Limp, emaciated, re- 

 duced to a half or a third of its normal size. 

 It vainly tries to weave a cocoon for which it 

 does not possess the silk; and it perishes in a 

 312 



