THE SPHEGIDA. 219 
abdomen (Spher flavifennis), and it makes nests in the sand, in 
which it lays an egg; then it seeks the larvae of grasshoppers, 
and places them in contact with the egg, after having stung 
them. Another kind, which is found in Languedoc, attacks a 
very large grasshopper; and it is indeed surprising what very 
large insects the Sphegide can carry and introduce into their 
nests. The females of the English species may often be seen 
in the eastern counties coming out of holes in the banks, 
and if they are watched, the process of their excavations is not 
difficult to understand. When the little hole is dug sufficiently 
deep in the soil, a tiny egg is laid within, the female comes out 
and stops up the opening with a piece of dust, and flies off in 
Female. Male. 
Ammophila sabulosa. 
search of a victim. It pounces upon some small caterpillar or 
larva, or even small flies, stings one of them, and carries it off 
bodily to its nest. The female can always discover the hole it 
has made, and, after rolling away the earth that closes it up, the 
future food of the young Sper is pushed into the cavity, which 
is then closed up from the outside. The activity, energy, and ex- 
citement of the insect whilst all this is going on are very great, 
and it soon dies after the provisioning of the nest is completed. 
The genus Ammophila contains one species, the true Sand 
Wasp, which is very abundant in Europe. It is a slender, elongated 
insect, with a red band across the lower half of the third, the 
whole of the fourth, and the upper part of the fifth segment of 
the abdomen. It has habits like those of the Sper just described, 
but it invariably chooses the caterpillars of certain moths for the 
prey of its larve. 
There are some Sphegide in the tropics which have enormously 
