More Hunting Wasps 



tributed in the mould at random, without 

 special cavities, without any sign of some 

 sort of structure. They are smothered in 

 the mould, just as are the larvae which have 

 not been injured by the Wasp. As my ex- 

 cavations in the Bois des Issards told me, 

 the Scolia does not prepare a lodging for her 

 family; she knows nothing of the art of cell- 

 building. Her offspring occupies a fortui- 

 tous abode, on which the mother expends no 

 architectural pains. Whereas the other 

 Hunting Wasps prepare a dwelling to which 

 the provisions are carried, sometimes from 

 a distance, the Scolia confines herself to dig- 

 ging her bed of leaf-mould until she comes 

 upon a Cetonia-larva. When she finds a 

 quarry, she stabs it on the spot, in order to 

 immobilize it; and, again on the spot, she 

 lays an egg on the ventral surface of the 

 paralysed creature. That is all. The 

 mother goes in quest of another prey with- 

 out troubling further about the egg which 

 has just been laid. There is no effort of 

 carting or building. At the very spot where 

 the Cetonla-grub is caught and paralysed, 

 the Scolia-larva hatches, grows and weaves 

 its cocoon. The esitablishment of the fami- 

 ly is thus reduced to the simplest possible 

 expression. 



S4 



