More Hunting Wasps 



excavation on her part? By no means: the 

 Anathema Tachytes is an energetic tunneller, 

 no doubt, but, after all, is incapable of per- 

 forming so great a labour in so short a time. 

 If the underground worker is so swift in her 

 progress, it is because the track followed has 

 already been covered by another. The trail 

 is ready prepared. We will describe it, for 

 it is clearly defined before the intervention 

 of the Wasp. 



On the surface of the ground, for a length 

 of two paces at most, runs a sinuous line, a 

 beading of crumbled soil, roughly the width 

 of my finger. From this line of ramifications 

 shoot out to left and right, much shorter 

 and irregularly distributed. One need not 

 be a great entomological scholar to recog- 

 nize, at the first glance, in these pads of 

 raised earth, the trail of a Mole-cricket, the 

 Mole among insects. It is the Mole-cricket 

 who, seeking for a root to suit her, has ex- 

 cavated the winding tunnel, with investiga- 

 tion-galleries grafted to either side of the 

 main road. The passage is free therefore, 

 or at most blocked by a few landslips, of 

 which the Tachytes will easily dispose. This 

 explains her rapid journey underground. 



But what does she do there? For she is 

 always there, in the few observations which 

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