More Hunting Wasps 



the impossibility of doing otherwise on the 

 slippery surface of a table. Clumsy, obese, 

 weak in the legs, curved into a hook like the 

 common White Worm,^ the Anoxia-larva is 

 unable ta move along a smooth surface; it 

 writhes laboriously, lying on its side. It 

 needs the shifting soil in which, using its 

 mandibles as a plough-share, it digs into the 

 ground and buries itself. 



Let us try if sand will shorten the strug- 

 gle, for I see no end to it yet, after more 

 than an hour of waiting. I lightly powder 

 the arena. The attack is resumed with a 

 vengeance. The larva, feeling the sand, its 

 native element, tries to escape. Imprudent 

 creature! Did I not say that its obstinacy 

 in remaining rolled up was due to no ac- 

 quired prudence but to the necessity of the 

 moment? The sad experience of past ad- 

 versities has not yet taught it the precious 

 advantage which it might derive from keep- 

 ing its coils closed so long as danger remains. 

 For that matter, on the unyielding support 

 of my table, they are not one and all so 

 cautious. The larger seem even to have 

 forgotten what they knew so well in their 

 youth: the defensive art of coiling them- 

 selves up. 



1 The larva of the Cockchafer. — Translator's Note. 

 320 



