254 EYE SPY 
wasp lugs him to the mouth of one of the bur- 
rows, and soon disappears in its depths. 
Further than this few have followed the couple. 
But Professor C. V. Riley, our government ento- 
mologist, has unearthed the entire mystery, and 
eye - witnessed the fate of our cicada, and I am 
thus enabled to picture the rest of the tragedy. 
What now follows is very similar to what I de- 
scribed in a previous paper concerning the mud- 
wasp nest packed with its dead spiders. Our ci- 
cada is not dead more's the pity. The thrust of 
the sting has only paralyzed the insect, in order 
that the young 'of the hornet may be provided with 
living food. From the opening of the tunnel in 
the sand our harvest -fly was lugged a distance 
of about six inches, when the tunnel branched 
in various directions. Down a branch for about 
eight inches more, and his journey terminated in 
a dungeon, where his career was doomed to end. 
Doubtless each of the other branches held one or 
two similar prisoners, for the cicada is the favorite 
prey of this particular wasp. Once arrived at the 
dungeon, the hornet deposits an egg upon its vic- 
tim, and leaves him in its charge. In a few days 
it hatches into a larva with such a voracious ap- 
petite that within a week it has devoured the con- 
tents of the cicada's shell and reached its full 
growth. It now incloses itself within a silky co- 
coon, and after abiding the winter emerges at the 
