136 INSECT LIFE x 



half-wit in the eyes of these women ! What humiUa- 

 tion ! However, pecatre, that term of supreme 

 commiseration in Provengal, uttered from the bottom 

 of the heart, made me quickly forget the Innocent." 



It is to that same ravine that I invite my reader, 

 if he is not repelled by the small annoyances of 

 which I have given him a foretaste. S. occitanica 

 haunts these parts, not in numbers giving one 

 another rendezvous when nidification is going on, 

 but solitary individuals far apart, wherever their 

 vagabond peregrinations have led them. Just as their 

 relative S. flavipennis seeks the society of relations and 

 the animation of a work-yard and company, so, on 

 the other hand, does the Languedocian Sphex prefer 

 calm, isolation, and solitude. Graver in behaviour, 

 more formal in manner, more elegant of figure, and in 

 more sombre attire, she always lives apart, careless 

 of what others are doing, disdaining companionship, 

 a very misanthrope among Sphegidae. S. flavipennis 

 is sociable ; S. occitanica is unsociable — a profound 

 difference, alone sufficient to characterise them. 



This suggests how greatly the difficulty of observing 

 the latter is increased. No long meditated experi- 

 ment is possible, nor can one attempt to repeat it a 

 second time if the first has failed. If you make 

 preparations beforehand, — for instance, if you put in 

 reserve a piece of game to substitute for that of the 

 Sphex, — it is to be feared, indeed it is almost certain, 

 that she will not appear, or if she comes, your pre- 

 parations turn out useless. Everything must be 

 improvised at once — conditions which I have not 

 always been able to realise as I could have wished. 



Let us take courage ; the position is good. 



