The Mason-Wasps 



talent is expressed in a work of the highest 

 perfection, which charms the most untutored 

 eye. Their dwelling is a masterpiece. And 

 yet the Eumenes follow the profession of 

 arms, which is unfavourable to artistic effort: 

 they stab and sting a victim; they pillage and 

 plunder. They are predatory Wasps, vic- 

 tualling their larvae with caterpillars. It 

 must be interesting to compare their habits 

 with those of the operator on the Grey 

 Worm.^ Though the quarry — caterpillars 

 in either case — remain the same, instinct, 

 which is liable to vary with the species, may 

 have fresh glimpses in store for us. Besides, 

 the edifice built by the Eumenes in itself de- 

 serves inspection. 



The Hunting Wasps whose story we have 

 told hitherto ^ are wonderfully well-versed 

 in the art of wielding the lancet; they astound 

 us with their surgical methods, which they 



^Thft Grey Worm is the caterpillar of Noctua segetum, 

 the Dart or Turnip Moth. It is hunted by the Hairy Am- 

 mophila, for whom cf. The Hunting Wasps, by J. Henri 

 Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap, 

 xviii. — Translator's Note. 



2 Cf . T/je Hunting Wasps: passim; Insect Life, by J. H. 

 Fabre, translated by the author of Mademoiselle Mori: 

 chaps, iii. to xii., xiv. to xvii. and xix. ; The Life and Love 

 of the Insect, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander 

 Teixeira de Mattos: chaps, xi. to xii.; and Social Life of 

 the Insect World, by J. H. Fabre, translated by Bernard 

 Miall: chap. xiii. — translator's Note. 



