The Mason-bees 



which their family will feed. They follow 

 the chase by virtue of the same quality as the 

 most renowned hunters, Cerceris, Sphex or 

 Ammophila; only, instead of removing the 

 game to a special lair, they leave it where it 

 is, down in the burrow. Homeless poachers, 

 they let their venison be consumed on the spot 

 where it is caught. 



In what respect do the Mutilla, the Chrysis, 

 the Leucospis, the Anthrax and so many others 

 differ, in their way of living, from the Scolia? 

 It seems to me, in none. See for yourselves. 

 By an artifice that varies according to the 

 mother's talent, their grubs, either in the 

 germ-stage or newly-born, are brought into 

 touch with the victim that is to feed them : an 

 unwounded victim, for most of them are with- 

 out a sting; a live victim, but steeped in the 

 torpor of the coming transformations and thus 

 delivered without defence to the grub that Is 

 to devour it. 



With them, as with the Scoliae, meals are 

 made on the spot on game legitimately ac- 

 quired by Indefatigable battues or by patient 

 stalking In which all the rules have been ob- 

 served; only, the animal hunted is defenceless 

 and does not need to be laid low with a dag- 



212 



