122 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



a bottle, introduced a wasp. She seized it almost immediately, 

 with great vigor, and stung it once, under the neck, and then 

 dragged it up and down the bottle by one antenna which was 

 held in the mandibles. After a moment she shifted it and held 

 it with the second legs in the usual way. We now put in an- 

 other bee which she also caught, stung in the same place, and! 

 then dropped without relaxing her hold of the first one. As she 

 seemed to have nothing further to show us we released her, and' 

 after circling a little she took into her nest the bee that she was 

 carrying. 



In our next experiment we used a larger glass, thinking that 

 with more space we might see malaxation. The instant that 

 the wasp was introduced she grasped the bee with one rapid 

 powerful motion, and stung it just under the neck as before. 

 Then holding it with the second legs she began to fly about in 

 the glass. We now introduced another bee, whereupon the first 

 one was relinquished, and the second was treated in exactly the 

 same way. The stinging was the beginning and the end of the 

 operation, and when we released her she at once took the bee 

 into the nest. There was no malaxation outside and certainly 

 there was none within, as was shown by the rapidity with which 

 the wasps issued from the nest after storing the bees. We 

 were only successful in getting the wasps to sting when we tried 

 the experiment with those that were hunting. When those 

 that had not yet begun to store their nests were put into the glass 

 they paid no attention to the bees. 



The victim of the sting of punctatus is killed at once. Life is 

 extinct from the instant that the stroke is given. This is true 

 also of the honey-bee that is the victim of Fabre's Philanthus 

 apivorus, but the explanation that he gives of the action of his 

 wasp in thus dealing sudden death instead of paralysing its foe 

 that the honey must be sucked out of the bee before it can be 

 safely used as food for the larva does not hold good in our 

 case, since the honey that Halictus carries to mix with the pollen 

 upon which her offspring are fed, is not removed. 



As time went on we found on the island two other Philanthus 



