86 ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



the mother who provides for them. In captur- 

 ing insects she does not kill them, she inserts her 

 venomous sting in her victims, producing a long, 

 indeed a fatal, lethargy,* for the poison seems to 

 preserve the unfortunate creatures from death and 

 decay. In this condition she carries them to her 

 cells, in this condition they lie, condemned to be 

 slowly eaten by the hymenopterous larvae. Let us 

 hope kind Nature deprives the luckless beings of 

 consciousness in the same moment that they are 

 robbed of animation. 



The Fossores belonging to the genus Odynerus, or 

 the False Wasps, are pretty little black things, striped 

 with yellow, noted for their agility and graceful 

 movements. The Masons of Reaumur may constantly 

 be seen in this country in great numbers, flying to 

 and fro over a hard, sandy, or gravelly bank exposed 

 to the sun, boring their tunnels and storing them 

 often with the green larvae of a weevil,* of which 

 as many as fifteen or sixteen may be put in one cell. 

 They raise a fanciful cylindrical tube over the mouth 

 of their burrow ; when finished, it often projects from 

 the soil no less than two or three inches. It is 

 formed of pellets of earth arranged in circles 

 one over and in front of the others, with small 

 intervening spaces left open between the masses, 

 giving it the appearance of filigree work. For the 

 greater part of its length it is upright, but towards 

 the top is carried downwards to describe a slight curve. 

 The use of this vestibule is doubtful ; perhaps it may 

 prevent the incursions of artful parasites, who may 

 fear to enter so long a defile. Whatever the object 



