More Hunting Wasps 



per terrifies her. And then, if she were to 

 overcome her apprehensions, she does not 

 know how to master the Acridian and, above 

 all, how to operate upon him. To every 

 man his trade, to every Wasp her own way 

 of wielding her sting. Modify the condi- 

 tions ever so slightly; and these skilful 

 paralysers are at an utter loss. 



To every insect also its own art of fash- 

 ioning the cocoon, an art which varies 

 greatly, an art in which the larva displays 

 all the resources of its instincts. The 

 Tachytes, the Bembeces, the Stizi, the Pa- 

 lari and other burrowers build composite 

 cocoons, hard as fruit-stones, formed of an 

 incrustation of sand in a net work of silk. 

 We are already acquainted with the work 

 of the Bembex. I will recall the fact that 

 their larva first weaves a conical, horizontal 

 bag of pure white silk, with wide meshes, 

 held in place by interlaced threads which fix 

 it to the walls of the cell. I have compared 

 this bag, because of its shape, with a fish- 

 trap. Without leaving this hammock, 

 stretching its neck through the orifice, the 

 worker gathers from without a little heap of 

 sand, which it stores inside its workshop. 

 Then, selecting the grains one by one, it en- 

 crusts them all around itself in the fabric 

 i6o 



