534 PREPARATION OP FOOD FOR INSECT-LARVAE. 
seeks for the dead body of a mole, shrew, or such other 
quadruped; and having found one, she excavates beneath it 
a hole of sufficient dimensions to contain the body, which she 
gradually drags into it; she then de¬ 
posits her eggs in the carcase, so that 
the larvae, when they come forth, find 
themselves, in the midst of a supply of 
carrion, on which they feed like their 
parents.—This instinct is still more 
remarkable, when an Insect whose diet 
is exclusively vegetable prepares for its 
larva a supply of animal food. Such is 
the case with the Pompilus , an Insect 
allied to the wasp. In its perfect state 
it lives entirely on the juices of flowers; but the larvae are 
carnivorous ; and the mother provides for them the requisite 
supply of the food they require, by placing in the nest, by 
the side of the eggs, the body of a spider or caterpillar which 
she had previously killed by means of her sting. The Xylocopa , 
Fig. 275.— Xylocofa. Fig. 276.— Nest of Xylocopa. 
or Carpenter-bee (fig. 275), has very analogous habits; the 
female makes long burrows in wood, palings, &c., in which 
she excavates a series of cells (fig. 276); and in every one of 
these she deposits an egg, with a supply of pollen-paste. 
704. The instinct of support and protection to the young 
and helpless offspring, is seen in all animals in which it is 
needed; and it is particularly observable in Birds. The nests 
Fig. 274. —Necrophorus. 
