172 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



chance — those of various Bembeces, fed on Diptera ; 

 those of the Palaris, whose diet consists of a large 

 variety of Hymenoptera ; those of the Tachytus, pro- 

 vided with young crickets ; those of the Odynerus, fed 

 upon larvae ol the Chrysomela ; those of the sand- 

 dwelling Cerceris, endowed with a hecatomb of weevils. 

 As will be seen, both consumers and consumed offer 

 plenty of variety. Well, in every case their proper diet, 

 seasoned wuth honey, is fatal. Whether poisoned or 

 disgusted, they all die in a few days. 



A strange result ! Honey, the nectar of the flowers, 

 the sole diet of the apiary under its two forms and the 

 sole nourishment of the predatory insect in its adult 

 phase, is for the larva of the same insect an object of 

 insurmountable disgust, and probably a poison. The 

 transfiguration of the chrysalis surprises me less than 

 this inversion of the appetite. What change occurs in 

 the stomach of the insect that the adult should passion- 

 ately seek that which the larva refuses under peril of 

 death ? It is no question of organic debility unable to 

 support a diet too substantial, too hard, or too highly 

 spiced. The grubs which consume the larva of the 

 Cetoniae, for example (the Rose-chafers), those which 

 feed upon the leathery cricket, and those whose diet is 

 rich in nitrobenzine, must assuredly have complacent 

 gullets and adaptable stomachs. Yet these robust eaters 

 die of hunger or poison for no greater cause than a 

 drop of syrup, the lightest diet imaginable, adapted to 

 the weakness of extreme youth, and a delicacy to the 

 adult ! What a gulf of obscurity in the stomach of a 

 miserable worm I 



These gastronomic experiments called for a counter- 



