More Hunting Wasps 



food for the larvae and the hunt conducted 

 merely to gratify the mother's appetite. 



As the worries of captivity might well be 

 the cause of a few anomalies in the insect's 

 actions, I felt that I ought to enquire how 

 things happen in the open. I lay in wait 

 near some colonies of Philanthi, for longer 

 perhaps than the question deserved, as it 

 had already been settled by what had hap- 

 pened under glass. My tedious watches 

 were rewarded from time to time. Most of 

 the huntresses returned home immediately, 

 with the Bee under their abdomen; some 

 halted on the brambles hard by; and here 

 I saw them squeezing the dead Bee and mak- 

 ing her disgorge the honey, which was greed- 

 ily lapped up. After these preliminaries the 

 corpse was stored. Every doubt is there- 

 fore removed: the provisions of the larva 

 are first carefully drained of their honey. 



Since we are on the spot, let us prolong 

 our stay and enquire into the customs of the 

 Philanthus in a state of liberty. Serving 

 dead prey, which goes bad in a few days, the 

 Bee-huntress cannot adopt the method of 

 certain insects which paralyse a number of 

 separate heads of game and fill the cell with 

 provisions, completing the ration before lay- 

 ing the egg. She needs the method of the 

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