CHAPTER XII. 
A NOBLE WASP. 
(Monedula punctata.) 
Natorauists, like kings and emperors, have their 
favourites, and as my zoological sympathies, which 
are wider than my knowledge, embrace all classes 
of beings, there are of course several insects for 
which I have a special regard; a few in each of 
the principal orders. My chief favourite among 
the hymenopteras is the one representative of the 
curious genus Monedula known in La Plata. It is 
handsome and has original habits, but it is specially 
interesting to me for another reason: I can re- 
member the time when it was extremely rare on 
the pampas, so rare that in boyhood the sight of 
one used to be a great event to me; and I have 
watched its rapid increase year by year till it has 
come to be one of our commonest species. Its 
singular habits and intelligence give it a still better 
claim to notice. It is a big, showy, loud-buzzing 
insect, with pink head and legs, wings with brown 
reflections, and body encircled with alternate bands 
of black and pale gold, and has a preference for 
large composite flowers, on the honey of which it 
feeds. Its young is, however, an insect-eater ; but 
the Monedula does not, like other burrowing or 
