The Hunting Wasps 



is an implement for use, a tool, on which the 

 future of the grubs depends. It must there- 

 fore be one easy to wield in the struggle with 

 the captured prey; it must be capable of being 

 inserted in the flesh and withdrawn without 

 the least hesitation, a condition much better 

 fulfilled by a smooth than by a barbed blade. 

 I wished to find out at my own expense if 

 the Sphex' sting is very painful, this sting 

 which lays low sturdy victims with terrible 

 rapidity. Well, I confess with profound ad- 

 miration that it is insignificant and bears no 

 comparison, for intensity of pain, with the 

 stings of the irascible Bees and Social Wasps. 

 It hurts so little that, instead of using the 

 forceps, I would not scruple to take in my 

 fingers any live Sphex-wasps that I needed in 

 my experiments. I can say the same of the 

 different Cerceres, of the Philanthi, 1 of the 

 Palari, of even the huge Scolias, 2 whose 

 very view inspires dismay, and, generally 

 speaking, of all the Hunting Wasps that I 

 have been able to observe. I make an ex- 

 ception of the Spider-huntresses, the Pom- 



^For Philanthus Apivorus, the Bee-eating Wasp, cf. 

 Social Life in the Insect World, by J. H. Fabre, trans- 

 lated by Bernard Miall: chap. xiii. Translator's Note. 



2 Cf. The Life and Love of the Insect: chap, xi. 

 Translator's Note. 



90 



