The Odyneri 



nevertheless had the egg swinging from the 

 ceiling. I have seen others, also furnished 

 with the egg and so far containing only two 

 or three head of game, a first instalment of 

 the abundant dish of twenty-four. This 

 early egg-laying, so utterly unlike what hap- 

 pens in the case of the other predatory 

 Wasps, has its underlying motive, as we 

 shall see; it has its logic at which we can- 

 not fail to marvel. 



The egg, laid in the empty cell, is not 

 fixed at random on the first spot that offers 

 upon the enclosing wall, which is vacant at 

 all sides; it is hung near the far end, oppo- 

 site the entrance. Reaumur had already 

 noted this position of the budding larva, but 

 without insisting on a detail whose import- 

 ance he did not suspect: 



" The grub," he says, " is born at the bot- 

 tom of the hole, that is, at the back of the 

 cell." 



He does not speak of the egg, which he 

 does not appear to have seen. This posi- 

 tion of the grub was so well known to him 

 that, wishing to attempt the rearing of a 

 grub in a glass cell made with his own 

 hands, he placed the larva at the bottom 

 and the victuals on top of it. 

 5i 



