Change of Diet 



no one would dare to. The Cerceris, more 

 perspicacious, knows each of them for a Wee- 

 vil, a quarry with a concentrated nervous 

 system, lending itself to the surgical feat of 

 her single stroke of the lancet. After ob- 

 taining an abundant booty at the cost of the 

 blunt-mouthed insect, with which she some- 

 times stuffs her cellars to the exclusion of any 

 other fare, according to the hazards of the 

 chase, she now suddenly sees before her the 

 creature with the extravagant proboscis. 

 Accustomed to the first, will she fail to know 

 the second? By no means: at the first 

 glance she recognizes it as her own; and the 

 cell already furnished with a few Brachy- 

 deres receives its complement of Balanlni. 

 If these two species are to seek, if the bur- 

 rows are far from the holm-oaks, the Cer- 

 ceris will attack Weevils displaying the great- 

 est variety of genus, species, form and color- 

 ation, levying tribute indifferently on Sitones, 

 Cneorhini, Geonemi, Otiorhynchi, Stropho- 

 somi and many others. 



In vain do I rack my brains merely to 

 guess at the signs upon which the huntress 

 relies as a guide, without going outside one 

 and the same group, in the midst of such 

 a variety of game; above all by what char- 

 acteristics she recognizes as a Weevil the 

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