The Return to the Nest 



she treats that irksome lump of rubbish, the 

 grub. Once she has raked out the end of 

 the passage, which is the work of a moment, 

 the Bembex returns to her favourite spot, the 

 threshold, where she resumes her useless 

 search. As for the grub, it continues to 

 writhe and wriggle wherever its mother has 

 kicked it. It will die without the mother's 

 coming to its assistance, for she fails to re- 

 cognize it because she was unable to find the 

 customary passage. Go back to-morrow 

 and you shall see it lying in its trench, half- 

 baked by the sun and already a prey to the 

 very Flies that were once its prey. 



Such is the concatenation of instinctive 

 actions, linked one to the other in an order 

 which the gravest circumstances are power- 

 less to disturb. What, after all, is the Bem- 

 bex looking for? Her larva, obviously. 

 But, to get at that larva, she must enter the 

 burrow ; and, to enter that burrow, she must 

 first of all find the door. And it is in the 

 search for this door that the mother persists, 

 despite the wide-open gallery, despite the 

 provisions, despite the grub, all exposed to 

 view. At the moment she cares not that 

 her house is in ruins and her family in dan- 

 ger; what she wants above all things is the 

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