The Hunting Wasps 



starting-point which the Wasp could not be 

 suspected of knowing. 



I therefore take nine female Cerceres from 

 the same group of burrows that supplied me 

 in the morning. Three of them had just 

 been subjected to the previous test. They 

 were again carried in a dark box, each insect 

 enclosed in its paper bag. The starting- 

 point selected is the nearest town, Carpen- 

 tras, which lies at about two miles from the 

 burrow. I am to release my insects not 

 among the fields, as on the first occasion, but 

 absolutely in the street, in the centre of a 

 crowded neighbourhood, where the Cerceres, 

 with their rustic habits, had certainly never 

 penetrated. As the day is already far-ad- 

 vanced, I postpone the experiments; and my 

 captives spend the night in their prison-cells. 



Next morning, at about eight, I mark 

 them on the thorax with two white spots, to 

 distinguish them from yesterday's lot, who 

 were marked with only one; and I set them 

 free, one after the other, in the middle of the 

 street. Each Cerceris released first shoots 

 straight up between the two rows of houses, 

 as though to escape as soon as possible from 

 the narrow street and gain the spacious hori- 

 zons; then, rising above the roofs, she at 

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