More Hunting Wasps 



a few facts which have not yet been related. 

 The Nest-building Odynerus showed us in 

 her cells a few Chrysomela-larvae fixed by 

 the hinder part to the side of the reed. 

 The grub fastens itself in this way to the 

 poplar-leaf to obtain a purchase when the 

 moment has come for leaving the larval 

 slough. Do not these preparations for the 

 nymphosis tell us plainly that the creature is 

 not dead? 



The Hairy Ammophila affords us an even 

 better example. A number of caterpillars 

 operated on before my eyes attained, some 

 sooner, some later, the chrysalis stage. My 

 notes are explicit on the subject of some of 

 them, taken on Verbascum sinuatum. Sacri- 

 ficed on the 14th of April, they were still 

 irritable when tickled with a straw a fort- 

 night after. A little later, the pale-green 

 colouring of the early stages is replaced by 

 a reddish brown, except on two or three 

 segments of the median ventral surface. 

 The skin wrinkles and splits, but does not 

 come detached of its own accord. I can 

 easily remove it in shreds. Under this 

 slough appears the firm, chestnut-brown horn 

 integument of the chrysalis. The develop- 

 ment of the nymphosis is so correct that for 

 a moment the crazy hope occurs to me that 

 364 



