More Hunting Wasps 



This fluid no doubt represents to her some 

 highly-flavoured beverage with which she 

 seasons from time to time the staple diet 

 fetched from the drinking-bar of the flowers, 

 some appetizing condiment or perhaps — 

 who knows? — some substitute for honey. 

 Though the qualities of the delicacy escape 

 me, I at least perceive that the Odynerus 

 does not covet anything else. Once its jar 

 is emptied, the larva is flung aside as worth- 

 less offal, a certain sign of a non-carnivorous 

 appetite. Under these conditions, the per- 

 secutor of the Chrysomela ceases to surprise 

 us by indulging in the crying abuse of a 

 double diet. 



We even begin to wonder whether other 

 species may not be inclined to derive a di- 

 rect advantage from the hunting imposed 

 upon them for the maintenance of the fam- 

 ily. The Odynerus' method of work, the 

 splitting open of the anal still-room, is too 

 far removed from the obvious procedure to 

 have many imitators; it is a secondary de- 

 tail and impracticable with a different kind 

 of game. But there is sure to be a certain 

 variety in the direct means of utilizing the 

 capture. Why, for instance, when the vic- 

 tim paralysed by the sting contains a deli- 

 cious broth in some part of its stomach, 

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