The Hunting Wasps 



carried on without animation though with un- 

 failing diligence. First of all, the prey is 

 sought for, attacked, reduced to helplessness. 

 Not until after that does the digger trouble 

 about the burrow. A favourable place is 

 chosen, as near as possible to the spot where 

 the victim lies, so as to cut short the tedious 

 work of transport; and the chamber of the 

 future larva is rapidly hollowed out and at 

 once receives the egg and the victuals. 

 There you have an example of the inverted 

 method of the Languedocian Sphex, a 

 method, as all my observations go to prove, 

 diametrically opposite to that of the other 

 Hymenoptera. I will give some of the more 

 striking of these observations. 



When caught digging, the Languedocian 

 Sphex is always alone, sometimes at the bot- 

 tom of a dusty recess left by a stone that has 

 dropped out of an old wall, sometimes en- 

 sconced in the shelter formed by a flat, pro- 

 jecting bit of sandstone, a shelter much sought 

 after by the fierce Eyed Lizard to serve as an 

 entrance-hall to his lair. The sun beats full 

 upon it; it is an oven. The soil, consisting 

 of old dust that has fallen little by little from 

 the roof, is very easy to dig. The cell is 

 soon scooped out with the mandibles, those 

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