The Mason- Wasps 



They want something different : a wounded, 

 a dying creature; a corpse dissolving into 

 sanies. Indeed, if I prick the Wasp-grub 

 with a needle, the scornful ones immediately 

 come and sup at the bleeding wound. If I 

 give them a dead larva, brown with putre- 

 faction, the grubs rip it open and feast on its 

 humours. Better still : I can feed them quite 

 satisfactorily with Wasps that have turned 

 putrid under their horny rings; I see them 

 greedily suck the juices of decomposing 

 Cetonia-larvse; I can keep them thriving with 

 chopped-up butcher's meat, which they know 

 how to liquefy by the method of the com- 

 mon maggot. And these unprejudiced ones, 

 who accept whatever comes their way, pro- 

 vided that it be dead, refuse it when it is 

 alive. Like the true Flies and frank body- 

 snatchers that they are, they wait, before 

 touching a morsel, for death to do its work. 



Inside the Wasps'-nest, robust larvae are 

 the rule and weaklings the rare exception, 

 because of the assiduous supervision which 

 eliminates anything that is like to die. 

 Here, nevertheless, Volucella-grubs are 

 found, on the combs, among the busy 

 Wasps. They are not, it is true, so numer- 

 ous as in the charnel-house below, but still 

 they are pretty frequent. Now what do they 

 302 



