134 A HUNTER WASP 



and appearance from the social wasps with which we 

 are most familiar, was conveying a caterpillar several 

 times her own weight and bulk 1 to a destination 

 which I knew must be her cell. This wasp, a female 

 Ammophila urnaria, was three-quarters of an inch 

 long, exclusive of antennae (I did not measure her, 

 but that is the standard for ladies of her degree). She 

 had long but extremely serviceable legs and absurdly 

 attenuated body, the abdomen, shaped like a miniature 

 humming-top and armed with powerful sting, being 

 connected with the thorax or forepart of the body by 

 a slender pedicel or stalk as long as the head and 

 thorax put together. The translucent wings are of an 

 ochreous tint, body and legs black, with a single bright 

 red band round the forepart of the abdomen. 



The caterpillar which Ammophila was carrying when 

 we met exceeded her own length by perhaps one-fourth, 

 and of course was of much bulkier build, yet she 

 was making good progress, now rising on the wing 

 with it and making a short flight, anon dragging it 

 along the ground aided by the vigorous motion of her 

 wings. Her mandibles were fixed in the caterpillar's 

 throat ; it lay extended at full length under her body, 

 with its back downwards. Had its legs been under- 

 most, they would have greatly increased the labour of 

 transport over the rough sand and short heather. The 



1 ' I have taken from the mandibles of the Sandy Ammophila & 

 caterpillar weighing fifteen times as much as its captor. Fifteen 

 times ! au enormous figure when we consider the strength which the 

 huntress must expend in dragging game of this kind over the count- 

 less obstacles on the road.' The Hunting Waapt, by J. H. Fabre, 

 translated by A. T. de Mattos, p. 241. 



