I 



CHAPTER XI 



THE TWO-BANDED SCOLIA 



If strength were to take precedence of other zoological 

 attributes, the Scoli?e would reign in the first rank, in 

 the order of the Hymenoptera. Some of them can be 

 compared in size with the little orange-crested northern 

 Wren, the Kinglet, who comes down to us, to visit the 

 maggoty buds, at the time of the first autumnal mists. 

 The largest, the most imposing of our sting-carriers, the 

 Humble-bee, the Hornet, cut a poor figure beside certain 

 Scolise. Among this group of giants, my region boasts 

 the Common or Garden ScoUa (Scolia Hortorum, van der 

 Lmd), who exceeds four centimetres^ in length and 

 measures ten^ from tip to tip of her outstretched wmgs, 

 and the Hemorrhoidal ScoHa (Scolia Hemorrhoidalis, van 

 der Lind). who vies in dimensions with the Garden Scolia 

 and is distmguished from her, in the main, by the brush 

 of red bristles at the tip of her belly. 



A black livery, with broad yellow patches ; tough wings 

 amber as an onion-skin and shot with purple reflections ; 

 coarse, knotted legs, bristling with rugged hairs ; a 

 massive build ; a powerful head, helmeted with a hard 

 skull ; a stiff and clumsy gait ; a short, silent flight, devoid 

 of soaring qualities : this, in few words, describes the 



^ 1^ inches. — Translator's Note. 



* 4 inches. — Translator' 3 Note. 



143 



