More Hunting Wasps 



happens when we give the Scolia food which 

 is not properly its own. 



I select from my heap of garden-mould, 

 that inexhaustible mine, two larvae of the 

 Rhinoceros Beetle, Oryctes nasicorniSf ^hout 

 one-third full-grown, so that their size may 

 not be out of proportion to the Scolia's. It 

 is in fact almost identical with the size of 

 the Cetonia. I paralyse one of them by 

 giving an injection of ammonia in the nerve- 

 centres. I make a fine incision in its belly 

 and I place the Scolia on the opening. The 

 dish pleases my charge; and it would be 

 strange indeed if this were not so, consider- 

 ing that another Scolia-grub, the larva of 

 the Garden Scolia, feeds on the Oryctes. 

 The dish suits it, for before long it has bur- 

 rowed half-way into the succulent paunch. 

 This time all goes well. Will the rearing 

 be successful? Not a bit of it! On the 

 third day, the Oryctes decomposes and the 

 Scolia dies. Which shall we hold respon- 

 sible for the failure, myself or the grub? 

 Myself who, perhaps too unskilfully, admin- 

 istered the injection of ammonia, or the grub 

 which, a novice at dissecting a prey dif- 

 fering from its own, did not know how to 

 practise its craft upon a changed victim and 

 began to bite before the proper time? 

 72 



