The Hunting Wasps 



the caterpillar from without. Well, Favier, 

 Claire, Aglae and the rest of you, what have 

 you to say? In three hours, you have not 

 been able to dig me up a single Grey Worm, 

 whereas this clever huntress supplies me with 

 as many as I want, once that I have thought 

 of coming to her assistance 1 



I have now plenty of spare pieces; let us 

 leave the huntress her fifth prize, which she 

 unearths with my help. I will set forth in 

 numbered paragraphs the various acts of the 

 gorgeous drama that passes before my eyes. 

 The observation is made under the most 

 favourable conditions: I am lying on the 

 ground, close to the slaughterer, and not one 

 detail escapes me. 



i. The Ammophila seizes the caterpillar 

 by the back of the neck with the curved 

 pincers of her mandibles. The Grey Worm 

 struggles violently, rolling and unrolling its 

 contorted body. The Wasp remains quite 

 unconcerned: she stands aside and thus 

 avoids the shocks. Her sting strikes the 

 joint between the first segment and the head, 

 on the median ventral line, at a spot where 

 the skin is more delicate. The dart stays in 

 the wound with some persistency. This, it 

 appears, is the essential blow, which will mas- 

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