The Life of the Fly 



I therefore picture the Anthrax coming and 

 going in every direction across the stony plain. 

 Her practised eye requires no slackened flight 

 to distinguish the earthen dome which she is 

 seeking. Having found it, she inspects it from 

 above, still on the wing; she taps it once and 

 yet once again with the tip of her ovipositor 

 and forthwith makes off, without having set 

 foot on the ground. Should she take a rest, 

 it will be elsewhere, no matter where, on the 

 soil, on a stone, on a tuft of lavender or 

 thyme. Given these habits — and my observa- 

 tions in the Carpentras roads make them seem 

 exceedingly probable — it is small wonder 

 that the perspicacity of my young shepherds 

 and myself should have come to naught. I 

 was expecting the impossible : the Anthrax 

 does not halt on the Mason-bee's nest to pro- 

 ceed with her laying in a methodical fashion; 

 she merely pays a flying visit. 



And so I develop my theory of a primary 

 larval form, differing in every way from the 

 one which I know. The organization of the 

 Anthrax must be such, at the beginning, as to 

 permit of its moving on the surface of the 

 dome where the egg has been dropped so care- 

 lessly; the nascent grub must be supplied with 

 tools to pierce the concrete wall and enter the 



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