The Method of the Ammophilae 



During the mining-operations, the game is 

 laid somewhere high up, out of reach of the 

 Ants, on some tuft of grass, or the twigs of 

 a shrub, whither the huntress, from time to 

 time, stopping her well-sinking, hastens to 

 see if her quarry is still there. For her this 

 is a means of refreshing her memory of the 

 spot where she has laid it, often at some dis- 

 tance from the burrow, and of preventing at- 

 tempts at robbery. When the moment 

 comes for removing the game from Its hi- 

 ding-place, the difficulty would be insurmount- 

 able were the worm, gripping the shrub with 

 all the might of its jaws, to anchor itself 

 there. Hence inertia of the powerful hooks, 

 which are the paralysed creature's sole 

 means of resistance, becomes essential du- 

 ring the carting. The Ammophila obtains it 

 by compressing the cerebral ganglia, by 

 munching the neck. The inertia is tem- 

 porary; it wears off sooner or later; but by 

 this time the carcase is in the cell and the 

 egg, prudently laid at a distance on the ven- 

 tral surface of the worm, has nothing to 

 fear from the caterpillar's grapnels. No 

 comparison is permissible between the me- 

 thodical squeezes of the Ammophila be- 

 numbing the cephalic nerve-centres and the 

 brutal manipulations of the Philanthus emp- 

 301 



