More Hunting Wasps 



In size the grub is the same as the egg, 

 whose dimensions I have just given. Now 

 the Cetonia-larva, to meet the Scolla's re- 

 quirements, averages thirty millimetres in 

 length by nine in thickness,^ whence follows 

 that its bulk is six or seven hundred times 

 as great as that of the newly-hatched grub 

 of the Scolia. Here certainly is a quarry 

 which, were it active and capable of wrig- 

 gling and biting, would expose the nurseling 

 to terrible risks. The danger has been 

 averted by the mother's stiletto; and the fra- 

 gile grub attacks the monster's paunch with 

 as little hesitation as though it were sucking 

 the breast. 



Day by day the young Scolia's head pene- 

 trates farther into the Cetonia's belly. To 

 pass through the narrow orifice made in the 

 skin, the fore-part of the body contracts and 

 lengthens out, as though drawn through a 

 die-plate. The larva thus assumes a rather 

 strange form. Its hinder half, which is con- 

 stantly outside the victim's belly, has the 

 shape and fullness usual in the larvae of the 

 Digger-wasps, whereas the front half, which, 

 once it has dived under the skin of the ex- 

 ploited victim, does not come out again un- 

 til the time arrives for spinning the cocoon, 



1 1.17 X. 3 5 inch. — Translator's Note. 

 56 



