The Halicti : a Parasite 



notice of her persecutress, unless the bandit 

 pursue her and worry her on the wing. Then, 

 with a sudden bend, the Bee makes off. 



Even so do Philanthiis apivoriis^ and the 

 other game-hunters behave when the Tachina 

 is at their heels seeking the chance to lay her 

 egg on the morsel about to be stored away. 

 Without jostling the parasite whom they fmd 

 hanging around the burrow, they go indoors 

 quite peaceably; but, on the wing, perceiving 

 her after them, they dart off wildly. The 

 Tachina, however, dares not go down to the 

 cells where the huntress stacks her provisions; 

 she prudently waits at the door for the Phi- 

 lanthus to arrive. The crime, the laying of 

 the egg, is committed at the very moment 

 when the victim is about to vanish under- 

 ground. 



The troubles of the parasite of the Halic- 

 tus are of quite another kind. The homing 

 Bee has her honey in her crop and her pollen 

 on her leg-brushes: the first is inaccessible to 

 the thief; the second is powdery and w^ould 

 give no resting-place to the egg. Besides, 

 there is not enough of it yet: to collect the 



iThe Bcc-huntinf^ Wasp. Cf. Social Life in the Insect 

 fforlJ: cliap. xiii. — Translator's Note. 



383 



