THE TWO-BANDED SCOLIA 145 



extremity do they employ it in their own defence. More- 

 over, the lack of suppleness in their movements enables 

 one nearly always to avoid the sting ; and, lastly, if one 

 were stung, the pain of the prick is almost insignificant. 

 This absence of a bitter smart in the poison is a pretty 

 constant fact among the game-hunting Hymenoptera, 

 whose weapon is a surgical lancet intended for the most 

 delicate physiological operations. 



Among the other Scoliae of my district, I will mention 

 the middle-sized Two-banded Scolia (Scolia Bifasciata, 

 van der Lind), whom I see yearly, in September, ex- 

 ploiting the manure-heaps of dead leaves arranged, for her 

 benefit, in a corner of my yard. Let us watch her 

 performance comfortably indoors. 



After the Cerceris, it is well to study others, hunting 

 an unarmed prey, a prey vulnerable at all points save 

 the skull, but giving only a single prick with the sting. 

 Of these two conditions, the Scoliae fulfilled one, with their 

 regulation game, the soft grub of Cetonia, Oryctes or 

 Anoxia, according to their species. Did they fulfil the 

 second ? I was convinced beforehand, judging from the 

 anatomy of the victims, with its concentrated nervous 

 system, that the sting was unsheathed but once ; I even 

 foresaw the point in which the weapon must be thrust. 



These were statements dictated by the anatomist's 

 scalpel, without the least direct proof from observed 

 facts. Stratagems accomplished underground escaped 

 the eye and seemed to me bound always to escape it. 

 How, indeed, could one hope that an animal whose art 

 is practised in the darkness of a manure-heap should be 

 persuaded to work in the full light of day ? I did not 

 reckon on it in the least. Nevertheless, for conscience* 

 sake, I tried putting the Scolia in touch with her quarry 



19 



