More Hunting Wasps 



Darwinian ideas, we have accepted an un- 

 known precursor, who by dint of repeated 

 experiment, adopted as the victuals to be 

 hoarded the larvae of the Scarabaeidae. This 

 precursor, modified by varying circumstances, 

 is supposed to have subdivided herself into 

 ramifications, one of which, digging into 

 vegetable mould and preferring the Cetonia 

 to any other game inhabiting the same heap, 

 became the Two-banded Scolia ; another, also 

 addicted to exploring the soil, but selecting 

 the Oryctes, left as its descendant the Gar- 

 den Scolia; and a third, establishing itself 

 in sandy ground, where it found the Anoxia, 

 was the ancestress of the Interrupted Scolia. 

 To these three ramifications we must beyond 

 a doubt add others which complete the series 

 of the Scoliae. As their habits are known to 

 me only by analogy, I confine myself to men- 

 tioning them. 



The three species at least, therefore, with 

 which I am familiar would appear to be de- 

 rived from a common precursor. To tra- 

 verse the distance from the starting-point to 

 the goal, all three have had to contend with 

 difliculties, which are extremely grave if 

 considered one by one and are aggravated 

 even more by this circumstance, that the 

 overcoming of one would lead to nothing 

 ii6 



