The Method of the Ammophilae 



ceris (C. ttiberculata) and the Yellow-winged 

 Sphex. Neither of them responded to my 

 desires. The refusal of each to attack re- 

 spectively her Cleonus or her Cricket dis- 

 couraged further progress in this direction. 

 I was wrong to abandon my attempts so 

 soon. Now, very long afterwards, the idea 

 occurs to me to place under glass the Bee-eat- 

 ing Philanthus, whom I sometimes surprise in 

 the open engaged in forcing a bee to dis- 

 gorge her honey. The captive massacres 

 her bees in such a spirited fashion that the 

 old hope revives stronger than ever. I con- 

 template reviewing all the wielders of the 

 stiletto and forcing each to reveal her tactics. 

 I was obliged to abate these ambitions 

 considerably. I had some successes and 

 many more failures. I will tell you of the 

 former. My insect-cage is a spacious dome 

 of wire-gauze resting on a bed of sand. 

 Here I keep in reserve the captives of my 

 hunting-expeditions. I feed them on honey, 

 placed in little drops on spikes of lavender, 

 on heads of thistle, or field eryngo, or globe- 

 thistle, according to the season. Most of 

 my prisoners do well on this diet and seem 

 scarcely affected by their internment; others 

 pine away and die in two or three days. 

 These victims of despair nearly always throw 

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