More Hunting Wasps 



as much, having before now captured Scoliae 

 soiled with Httle earthy encrustations on the 

 joints of the legs. The Wasp, who is so 

 careful to ke«p clean, taking advantage of 

 the least leisure to brush and polish herself, 

 could never display such blemishes unless she 

 were a devoted earth-worker. I used to 

 suspect their trade; now I know it. They 

 live underground, where they burrow in 

 search of LameUicorn-grubs, just as the 

 Mole burrows in search of the White 

 Worm.^ It is even possible that, after re- 

 ceiving the embraces of the males, they but 

 very rarely return to the surface, absorbed 

 as they are by their maternal duties; and 

 this, no doubt, is why my patience becomes 

 exhausted in watching for their entrance and 

 their emergence. 



It is in the subsoil that they establish 

 themselves and travel to and fro; with the 

 help of their powerful mandibles, their hard 

 cranium, their strong, prickly legs, they easily 

 make themselves paths in the loose earth. 

 They are living ploughshares. By the end 

 of August, therefore, the female population 

 is for the most part underground, busily 



1 The larva of the Cockchafer. This grub takes three 

 years or more to arrive at maturity underground. — 

 Translator's Note. 



42 



