The Hunting Wasps 



hands: it was the kidnapper of the Buprestes, 

 trying to escape from among her victims. In 

 this burrowing insect, I recognized an old 

 acquaintance, a Cerceris whom I have found 

 hundreds of times, both in Spain and round 

 about Saint-Sever. 



" My ambition was far from satisfied. It 

 was not enough for me to identify the kid- 

 napper and her victim: I wanted the larva, 

 the sole consumer of those rich provisions. 

 After exhausting this first vein of Buprestes, 

 I hastened to make fresh excavations and, 

 planting my spade more carefully still, I at 

 last succeeded in discovering two larvae which 

 crowned the good fortune of this campaign. 

 In less than an hour, I ransacked the haunts 

 of three Cerceres; and my booty was some 

 fifteen whole Buprestes, with fragments of 

 a still larger number. I calculated, keeping, 

 I believe, well within the mark, that this par- 

 ticular garden contained five-and-twenty nests, 

 making an enormous total of buried Bupre- 

 stes. What must it be, I thought, in places 

 where in a few hours I have caught on the 

 garlic-flowers as many as sixty Cerceres, 

 whose nests were apparently in the neighbour- 

 hood and no doubt victualled just as abun- 

 dantly? And so my imagination, never going 

 6 



