More Hunting Wasps 



way, these several victuals may be noxious 

 to a consumer who is not used to them. The 

 larva which dotes on Locust may find cater- 

 pillar a detestable fare; and that which rev- 

 els in caterpillar may hold Locust in horror. 

 It would be hard for us to discover in what 

 manner Cricket-flesh and Ephippiger-flesh 

 differ as juicy, nourishing foodstuffs; but it 

 does not follow that the two Sphex-wasps 

 addicted to this diet have not very decided 

 opinions on the matter, or that each of them 

 is not filled with the highest esteem for its 

 traditional dish and a profound dislike for 

 the other. There is no discussing tastes. 



Moreover, the question of health may well 

 be involved. There is nothing to tell us that 

 the Spider, that treat for the Pompilus, is 

 not poison, or at least unwholesome food, to 

 the Bembex, the lover of Gad-flies; that the 

 Ammophila's succulent caterpillar is not re- 

 pugnant to the stomach of the Sphex fed upon 

 the dry Acridian. The mother's esteem for 

 one kind of game and her distrust of another 

 would in that case be due to the likes and 

 dislikes of her larvas; the victualler would 

 regulate the bill of fare by the gastronomic 

 demands of the victualled. 



This exclusiveness of the carnivorous larva 

 seems all the more probable inasmuch as the 

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