The Mason-Wasps 



larvae of fuller growth, weavers at work on 

 their cocoons, in fact everything that one 

 could wish for. Never, except with the 

 Scolise in my heap of garden-mould,^ has 

 fortune served me better. Let us make an 

 orderly inventory of these rich documents. 



Already various Bees that favour bor- 

 rowed houses have shown us the insect dis- 

 criminating between one dwelling and an- 

 other and selecting the best to make their 

 homes in. We now have a predatory 

 Wasp who, following the example of the 

 Osmias, the Leaf-cutters and the Cotton- 

 bees, leaves the ancestral cabin for the cyl- 

 inder of the reed, to which man's pruning- 

 knife has prepared the access. The na- 

 tural shelter, of indifferent quality, is suc- 

 ceeded by the artificial and more convenient 

 refuge. The Odynerus' primitive lodging 

 is the abandoned corridor of the Antho- 

 phora, or any other burrow dug in the earth 

 by no matter what miner. The wooden 

 tube, free from damp and bathed in sun- 

 shine, is recognized as preferable; and the 

 insect hastens to adopt it when the oppor- 

 tunity occurs. The tunnel of the reed must 

 be recognized as an excellent habitation, 



1 Cf. The Life and Love of the Insect: chap. xi. — 

 Translator's Note. 



z86 



