More Hunting Wasps 



a long series of failures. Of two operators 

 on Weevils, one, the Sandy Cerceris (C 

 arenaria) , persistently scorned the victims 

 offered; the other, Ferrero's Cerceris (C 

 Ferreri), allowed herself to be empted after 

 two days' captivity. Her tactical method, 

 as I expected, is precisely that of the Cleonus- 

 huntress, the Great Cerceris, with whom 

 my investigations commenced. When con- 

 fronted with the Acorn-weevil, she seizes the 

 insect by the snout, which is immensely long 

 and shaped like a pipe-stem, and plants her 

 sting in its body to the rear of the prothorax, 

 between the first and second pair of legs. 

 It is needless to insist: the spoiler of the 

 Cleoni has taught us enough about this mode 

 of operation and its results. 



None of the Bembex-wasps, whether 

 chosen among the huntresses of the Gadfly 

 or among the lovers of the House-fly rab- 

 ble, satisfied my aspirations. Their method 

 is as unknown to me now as at the distant 

 period when I used to watch it in the Bois 

 des Issards.^ Their impetuous flight, their 

 love of long journeys are incompatible with 



Beetles, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander 

 Teixeira de Mattos: chaps, xiii. to xv. — Translator's 

 Note. 



1 Cf. The Hunting Wasps: chaps, xiv. to xviii. — Trans- 

 lator's Note. 



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