The Scoliae 



skin which is still unknown to me corre- 

 spond? The Lamellicorn whom I am seek- 

 ing must exist in the ground which I have 

 been exploring, because the Two-banded 

 Scolia has established herself there. Later 

 — oh, very long afterwards! — I recog- 

 nized where my search was at fault. In 

 order not to find a network of roots beneath 

 my luchet and to render the work of excava- 

 tion lighter, I was digging the bare places, at 

 some distance from the thickets of holm-oak; 

 and it was just in those thickets, which are 

 rich in vegetable mould, that I should have 

 sought. There, near the old stumps, in the 

 soil consisting of dead leaves and rotting 

 wood, I should certainly have come upon 

 the larva so greatly desired, as will be proved 

 by what I have still to say. 



Here ends what my earher investigations 

 taught me. There is reason to believe that 

 the Bois des Issards would never have fur- 

 nished me with the precise data, in the form 

 in which I wanted them. The remoteness 

 of the spot, the fatigue of the expeditions, 

 which the heat rendered intensely exhausting, 

 the impossibility of knowing which points to 

 attack would undoubtedly have discouraged 

 me before the problem had advanced a step 

 farther. Studies such as these call for home 

 45 



