The Volucella 



become too importunate, is quite readily 

 tolerated by the caged Wasps. None seeks 

 to pick a quarrel with her. She is even ad- 

 mitted to the table, the strip of paper 

 smeared with honey. But she is doomed if 

 she inadvertently sets foot upon the combs. 

 Her costume, her shape, her size, which tally 

 almost exactly with the costume, shape and 

 size of the Wasp, do not save her from her 

 fate. She is at once recognized as a 

 stranger and attacked and slaughtered with 

 the same vigour as the larvje of the 

 Hylotoma and the Saperda, neither of which 

 bears any outward resemblance to the 

 Wasps. 



If identity of shape and costume do not 

 save the Polistes, how will the Volucella fare, 

 with her clumsy imitation? The Wasp's 

 eye, which is able to discern the dissimilar in 

 the like, will refuse to be caught. The mo- 

 ment she is recognized, the stranger is killed 

 on the spot. As to that there is not the 

 shadow of a doubt. 



In the absence of Volucellae at the moment 

 of experimenting, I employ another Fly, 

 Milesia fulminans, who, thanks to her slim 

 figure and her handsome yellow bands, 

 presents a much more striking likeness to the 

 Wasp than does the fat V. zonaria. De- 



295 



