136 A HUNTER WASP 



was pretty familiar with the description given of the 

 habits of this insect by J. H. Fabre and by Mr. and Mrs. 

 Peckham, and I could scarcely expect to do more than 

 confirm the observations of such patient and accom- 

 plished naturalists. They have repeatedly seen and 

 vividly described what I have never had the good fortune 

 to witness, namely, that Ammophilcu urnaria having 

 to deal with large and powerful caterpillars, drives her 

 sting into each of the twelve segments of the captive's 

 body, thereby paralysing the nerve-ganglion situated 

 in each segment. In this action becomes apparent the 

 purpose of the long and slender pedicel, little more 

 than a thread, connecting the abdomen of the wasp 

 with its thorax. It enables her to bend her posterior 

 part with the utmost flexibility, and so direct the sting 

 with precision to every segment of the caterpillar, 

 while she remains above her prey grasping its neck 

 with her powerful mandibles. 



The caterpillar is not killed. If it were so, putre- 

 faction would speedily ensue and the flesh would be 

 quite unsuitable food for the wasp-grub that will 

 be hatched from the egg that the huntress will lay in 

 the body of her game. Human ingenuity has devised 

 cold storage for the preservation of fresh meat; but 

 that is a clumsy and laborious expedient compared 

 with the refined surgery of Ammophila and no whit 

 more effective. The caterpillar is kept alive, but sense- 

 less under the potent anaesthetic injected with the 

 puncture of the ganglia, and its flesh is clean and 

 wholesome when the grub is ready to partake of it. 



Having stocked the larder and deposited her egg, 



