212 INSECT LIFE 



XV 



taken out of the mandibles of A. holosericea a 

 caterpillar fifteen times her own weight — fifteen 

 times ! — an enormous sum if you consider what an 

 expenditure of strength it implies to drag such game 

 by the nape of its neck over the endless difficulties 

 of the ground. No other Hymenopteron tried in the 

 scales with its prey has shown me a like dispropor- 

 tion between spoiler and capture. The almost 

 endless variety of colouring in the provender 

 exhumed from the burrows or recognised in the 

 grasp of the various species also proves that the 

 three have no preference, but seize the first cater- 

 pillar met with, provided it be neither too large nor 

 too small, and belongs to the moths. The commonest 

 prey are those gray caterpillars which infest the 

 plant at the junction of a root and stem just below 

 the soil. 



That which governs the whole history of the 

 Ammophila, and more especially attracted my atten- 

 tion, was the way in which the insect masters its prey 

 and plunges it into the harmless state required for 

 the safety of the larva. The prey, a caterpillar, is 

 very differently organised from the victims which we 

 have hitherto seen sacrificed — Buprestids, Weevils, 

 Grasshoppers, and Ephippigers. It is composed of a 

 series of segments or rings set end to end, the three 

 first bearing the true feet which will be those of the 

 future butterfly ; others bear membranous or false 

 feet special to the caterpillar and not represented 

 in the butterfly ; others again are without limbs. 

 Each ring has its ganglion, the source of feeling and 

 movement, so that the nerve system comprehends 

 twelve distinct centres well separated from each other, 



