196 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



once or twice to an adjoining fir-tree, possibly to procure resin for agglu- 

 tinating the whole. Having filled the burrow to a level with the sur- 

 rounding earth so as to conceal the entrance, it took two fir-leaves lying 

 at hand, and placed them near the orifice, as if to mark the place. Such 

 is the anecdote left on record by our illustrious countryman, of whose 

 accuracy of observation there can be no doubt. 1 Who that reads it can 

 refrain from joining in the reflection which it calls from him, " Qitis hcec 

 non mihi miretur et stupeat? Quis hujusmodi opera inerce machines possit 

 attribuere?"* 



I myself, when walking with a friend some months ago, observed nearly 

 similar manoeuvres performed by another hymenopterous insect which 

 may be called a spider-wasp (Pompilus), which attracted our attention 

 as it was dragging a spider to its cell. The attitude in which it carried its 

 prey, namely, with its feet constantly upwards ; its singular mode of walk- 

 ing, which was backwards, except for a foot or two when it went forwards, 

 moving by jerks and making a sort of pause every few steps ; and the asto- 

 nishing agility with which, notwithstanding its heavy burthen, it glided over 

 or between the grass, weeds, and other numerous impediments in the 

 rough path along which it passed together formed a spectacle which we 

 contemplated with admiration. The distance which we thus observed it to 

 traverse was not less than twenty-seven feet; and great part of its journey 

 had probably been performed before we saw it. Once or twice, when we 

 first noticed it, it laid down the spider, and making a small circuit returned 

 and took it up again. But for the ensuing twenty or twenty-five feet it 

 never stopped, but proceeded in a direct line for its burrow with the 

 utmost speed. When opposite the hole, which was in a sand bank by the 

 way side, it made a sharp turn, as evidently aware of being in the neigh- 

 bourhood of its abode, but when advanced a little further laid down its 

 burthen and went to reconnoitre. At first it climbed up the bank, but, as 

 if discovering that this was not the direction, soon returned, and after 

 another survey, perceiving the hole, took up the spider and dragged it in 

 after it. 



In the two instances above given, one dead caterpillar or spider only was 

 deposited in each hole. But an insect described by Reaumur under the 

 name of the mason-wasp (Epipone spinipes), very common in some parts 

 of England, after having excavated a burrow, with an ingenuity to which 

 on a future occasion I shall draw your attention, places along with its egg 

 as food for the future young, about twelve little green grubs without feet, 

 which it has carefully selected full grown and conveyed without injuring 

 them. You will inquire, Why this difference of procedure '? With regard 

 to the choice of a number of small grubs rather than of one large cater- 

 pillar, what I have said in a former letter on the subject of different species 

 of this tribe being appointed to prey upon and thus keep within due limits 

 the larvae of different kinds of insects, will be a sufficient answer. But one 

 circumstance creditable to the talents of the mason-wasp as a skilful pur- 



1 The Rev. Dr. Sutton of Norwich made similar observations upon the proceedings 

 of this insect in his garden for two successive seasons. 



* Rai. Hist. Ins. 254. For an interesting account of the procedures of a female of 

 this species in dragging a very large spider up the nearly perpendicular side of a 

 sand-bank at least twenty feet high, as well as of other curious facts in the economy 

 of sand-wasps, the reader is referred to the very excellent " Essay on the Indige- 

 nous Fossorial Hymenoptera," by W. E. Shuckard, Esq., p. 77, &c. " 



