The Tachytes 



short that the Wasp brings her game home 

 on the wing, usually in a single flight. She 

 holds it by the fore-part, a very judicious 

 precaution, which is favourable to rapid 

 stowage in the warehouse, for then the 

 Mantis' legs stretch backwards, along the 

 axis of the body, instead of folding and pro- 

 jecting sideways, when their resistance would 

 be difficult to overcome in a narrow gallery. 

 The lanky prey dangles beneath the huntress, 

 all limp, lifeless and paralysed. The Tach- 

 ytes, still flyng, alights on the threshold 

 of the home and immediately, contrary to 

 the custom of Panzer's Tachytes, enters with 

 her prey trailing behind her. It is not un- 

 usual for a male to come upon the scene at 

 the moment of the mother's arrival. He is 

 promptly snubbed. This is the time for 

 work, not for amusement. The rebuffed 

 male resumes his post as a watcher in the 

 sun ; and the housewife stows her provisions. 

 But she does not always do so without 

 hindrance. Let me recount one of the mis- 

 adventures of this work of storage. There 

 is in the neighbourhood of the burrows a 

 plant which catches insects with glue. It is 

 the Oporto silene {S. portensis), a curious 

 growth, a lover of the sea-side dunes, which, 

 though of Portuguese origin, as its name 

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