112 FABKE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



legs which end in a long and very mobile claw ; a variety 

 of bristles and probes ; and a couple of strong spikes with 

 sharp, hard points an elaborate mechanism, like a sort of 

 ploughshare, capable of biting into the most highly polished 

 surface. Nor is this all. It is further provided with a sticky 

 liquid, sufficiently adhesive to hold it in position without 

 the help of other appliances. In vain I racked my brains to 

 guess what the substance might be, so shifting, so uncertain, 

 and so perilous, which the young Sitaris is destined to inhabit. 

 I waited with eager impatience for the return of the warm 

 weather. 



At the end of April the young grubs imprisoned in my 

 cages, hitherto lying motionless and hidden in the spongy 

 heap of egg-skins, suddenly began to move. They scattered, 

 and ran about in all directions through the boxes and jars 

 in which they had passed the winter. Their hurried move- 

 ments and untiring energy showed they were in search of 

 something, and the natural thing for them to seek was food. 

 For these grubs were hatched at the end of September, and 

 since then, that is to say for seven long months, they had 

 taken no nourishment, although they were by no means in 

 a state of torpor. From the moment of their hatching 

 they are doomed, though full of life, to an absolute fast 

 lasting for seven months; and when I saw their excitement 

 I naturally supposed that an imperious hunger had set them 

 bustling in that fashion. 



The food they desired could only be the contents of the 

 Anthophora's cells, since at a later stage the Sitaris is found 

 in those cells. Now these contents are limited to honey 

 and Bee-grubs. 



I offered them some cells containing larvae : I even slipped 

 the Sitares into the cells, and did all sorts of things to tempt 

 their appetite. My efforts were fruitless. Then I tried 

 honey. In hunting for cells provisioned with honey I lost a 

 good part of the month of May. Having found them I re- 

 moved the Bee-grub from some of them, and laid the Sitaris- 



