More Hunting Wasps 



I should like to see the huntress grappling 

 with an imposing adversary, one as crafty 

 as herself, an expert layer of ambushes and, 

 like her, bearing a poisoned dirk. I should 

 like to see the bandit armed with her stiletto 

 confronted by another bandit equally famil- 

 iar with the use of that weapon. Is such 

 a duel possible? Yes, it is quite possible 

 and even quite common. On the one hand 



we have the Pompili, the protagonists who 

 are always victorious; on the other hand we 

 have the Spiders, the protagonists who are 

 always overthrown. 



Who that has diverted himself, however 

 little, with the study of insects does not know 

 the Pompili? Against old walls, at the foot 

 of the banks beside unfrequented foot- 

 paths, in the stubble after the harvest, in 

 the tangles of dry grass, wherever the Spider 

 spreads her nets, who has not seen them 

 busily at work, now running hither and 

 thither, at random, their wings raised and 

 quivering above their backs, now moving 

 from place to place In flights long or short? 

 They are hunting for a quarry which might 

 easily turn the tables and itself prey upon the 

 trapper lying In wait for it. 



The Pompili feed their larvae solely on 

 Spiders; and the Spiders feed on any insect, 



