The Buprestis-hunting Cerceris 



I will add but a few words to the history 

 of the Buprestis-hunting Cerceris. This 

 Wasp, who is common in the Landes, as her 

 historian tells us, appears to be very rarely 

 found in the department of Vaucluse. I have 

 met her only at long intervals, in autumn 

 and then only isolated specimens on the 

 spiny heads of the field eryngo (Eryngium 

 campestre), in the neighbourhood either of 

 Avignon or of Orange and Carpentras. In 

 this last spot, so favourable to the work of 

 the Burrowing Wasps owing to its sandy soil 

 of Molasse formation, I have had the good 

 fortune, not to witness the exhumation of such 

 entomological treasures as Leon Dufour de- 

 scribes, but to find some old nests which I 

 attribute without hesitation to the Buprestis- 

 huntress, basing my opinion upon the shape 

 of the cocoons, the nature of the provisioning 

 and the presence of the Wasp in the neigh- 

 bourhood. These nests, dug in the heart of 

 a very crumbly sandstone, known in the dis- 

 trict as safre, were crammed with remains of 

 Beetles, remains easily recognized and con- 

 sisting of detached Wing-cases, gutted corse- 

 lets and entire legs. Now these broken 

 victuals of the larva's banquet all belonged 

 to a single species; and that species was once 



