The Hunting Wasps 



depth, which varies according to the more 

 or less recent date of the last rains, the sand 

 retains a lingering dampness which keeps it 

 in its place and gives it a consistency that 

 enables it to have small excavations made in 

 it without a subsequent collapse of walls and 

 roof. A blazing sun, a gloriously blue sky, 

 sandy slopes that yield without the least dif- 

 ficulty to the strokes of the Wasp's rake, 

 game galore for the grub's food, a peaceful 

 site hardly ever disturbed by the foot of 

 man: all the good things are combined in 

 this Bembex paradise. Let us watch the in- 

 dustrious insect at work. 



If the reader will sit with me under the 

 umbrella or consent to share my Rabbit-bur- 

 row, this is the sight which he is invited to 

 behold, at the end of July: a Bembex (B. 

 rostrata) arrives suddenly, I know not 

 whence, and alights, without preliminary in- 

 vestigations or the least hesitation, at a spot 

 which to my eyes differs in no respect from 

 the rest of the sandy surface. With her 

 fore-tarsi, which are armed with rows of 

 stiff hairs and suggest at the same time a 

 broom, a brush and a rake, she works at 

 clearing her subterranean dwelling. The in- 

 sect stands on its four hind-legs, holding the 

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