More Hunting Wasps 



determined order, without which success Is 

 uncertain or even Impossible. To these deli- 

 cate questions no one, I think, can reply. 

 Where science is silent, perhaps the grub 

 will speak. We will try. 



I move from Its position a Scolia-grub 

 which has attained a quarter or a third of 

 its full growth. The long neck plunged into 

 the victim's belly Is rather difficult to extract, 

 because of the need of molesting the creature 

 as little as possible. I succeed, by means of 

 a little patience and repeated strokes with the 

 tip of a paint-brush. I now turn the Ce- 

 tonla-larva over, back uppermost, at the bot- 

 tom of the little hollow made by pressing 

 my finger In the layer of mould. Lastly, I 

 place the Scolla on its victim's back. Here 

 is my grub under the same conditions as just 

 now, with this difference, that the back and 

 not the belly of its victim is presented to its 

 mandibles. 



I watch it for a whole afternoon. It 

 writhes about; it moves its little head now in 

 this direction, now in that, frequently lay- 

 ing It on the Cetonia, but without fixing it 

 anywhere. The day draws to a close; and 

 still It has accomplished nothing. There are 

 restless movements, nothing more. Hun- 

 ger, I tell myself, will eventually Induce it to 

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