The Method of the Scoliae 



the Philanthus. Yet another who has learnt 

 no lesson from the struggle for life. 



Let us proceed to further examples. I 

 have just captured an Interrupted Scolia 

 (Colpa interrupta, LATR.), exploring the 

 sand, doubtless in search of game. It Is a 

 matter of making the earliest possible use 

 of her, before her spirit is chilled by the 

 tedium of captivity. I know her prey, the 

 larva of Anoxia australis; * I know, from 

 my past excavations, the points favoured by 

 the grub : the mounds of sand heaped up by 

 the wind at the foot of the rosemaries on the 

 neighbouring hill-sides. It will be a hard 

 job to find It, for nothing is rarer than the 

 common if one wants It then and there. I 

 appeal for assistance to my father, an old 

 man of ninety, still straight as a capital I. 

 Under a sun hot enough to broil an egg, we 

 set off, shouldering a navvy's shovel and a 

 three-pronged luchet.^ Employing our fee- 

 ble energies In turns, we dig a trench In the 

 sand where I hope to find the Anoxia. My 

 hopes are not disappointed. After having 

 by the sweat of our brow — never was the 

 expression more justified — removed and 



1 The Anoxiae are a genus of Beetles akin to the Cock- 

 chafers. — Translator's Note. 



2 The local pitchfork of southern France. — Translator's 

 Note. 



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