The Mason-bees 



study in detail in a later chapter/ They are 

 hunters of Spiders and diggers of burrows. 

 The game, the food of the coming larva, is 

 first caught and paralyzed; the home is ex- 

 cavated afterwards. As the heavy prey would 

 be a grave encumbrance to the Wasp in search 

 of a convenient site, the Spider is placed high 

 up, on a tuft of grass or brushwood, out of the 

 reach of marauders, especially Ants, who 

 might damage the precious morsel in the law- 

 ful owner's absence. After fixing her booty 

 on the verdant pinnacle, the Pompilus casts 

 around for a favourable spot and digs her 

 burrow. During the process of excavation, 

 she returns from time to time to her Spider; 

 she nibbles at the prize, feels it, touches here 

 and there, as though taking stock of its plump- 

 ness and congratulating herself on the plenti- 

 ful provender; then she returns to her bur- 

 row and goes on digging. Should anything 

 alarm or distress her, she does not merely in- 

 spect her Spider: she also brings her a little 

 closer to her work-yard, but never fails to 

 lay heron the top of a tuft of verdure. These 



^For the Wasp known as the Pompilus, or Ringed 

 Calicurgus, cf. The Life and Love of the Insect: chap, 

 xii. — Translator's Note. 



152 



