212 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



the oval cells are made side by side. These are so constructed that the longer 

 axes of the ovals are horizontal, and the first formed is provisioned and sealed up 

 before the second one is dug. The provisions for each cell consist of three or four 

 field-crickets, and these are carefully stung in the three principal nerve-centres of 

 the body, which has the effect of completely paralyzing the cricket without killing 

 it. It is carried by the sphex to the mouth of the burrow, where it is dropped, 

 whilst the wasp goes in to ascertain that all is right. Then, grasping the cricket 

 by its antennae, the wasp going backwards draws its ^/ictim into the cell. A 

 cricket so treated will remain alive, though utterly incapable of any movement, 

 for three or four weeks, a much longer period than it takes for the wasp-grub to 

 consume it. The cricket is laid on its back, and on one of the crickets in each 

 cell a sphex egg is deposited between the second and third pairs of legs. As soon 



as the egg is hatched the young grub 

 attacks the cricket at this point and 

 burrows into its bod}^ eating out all the 

 interior in a week, and leaving nothing 

 but the cricket's skin. The other 

 crickets are similarly disposed of in 

 turn, but owing to the greater size of 

 the wasp-grub, the pace is accelerated, 

 so that in less than a fortnight from the 

 hatching of the egg all the food is con- 

 sumed. The grub then constructs an 

 elaborate cocoon of two separate cases 

 of white or yellowish silk, and within 

 these a case of firmer texture and dark 

 colour with a glossy surface. This, 

 apparently, is formed of a mixture of 

 fluid silk, with the excrementitious 

 matter that has been stored in the 



Photo by] [H.llastin. . . „ , i i r i- • j 



Hairy Sand-Wasp. mtestmes all through the teedmg period. 



This species hunts for, and finds, a largo caterpillar which lecds _| -i nnrnn^p anr^pprQ tr> hp in nrntprt 



underground, and therefore cannot be found bv sight. Havuig '^^^'-^ ^ l-h pUipOse dpped-Ib LU Ue IV piULCCL 



iZ'!'iulilTrV'v"^!s'^^!l^^^^^ the grub from damp during the nine 



months of its incarceration, prior to its assumption of the winged condition. 



A curious difference of procedure is shown in sand-wasps of two families : the 

 sphegidae, as we have seen, ram the earth down with their heads and with stones 

 held in the jaws ; the pompilidae use their hind-bodies as rammers. 



Cockchafers. 



In some seasons and in certain localities one may see in the warm evenings 

 of May and June the cockchafers, ^ or maybugs, flying in such numbers around the 

 upper parts of trees that, from a little distance, they look like a thin cloud or mist. 

 In such numbers they frequently do considerable damage by eating the foliage ; 

 but even so, it is not often realized that on the Continent they prove at times as 

 great a scourge as locusts — not so much in their complete beetle stage, but as 



^ Melolontha vulgaris. 



