The Biiprestis-htmting Cerceris 9 



only needed your presence to double our de- 

 light. Our ever-increasing admiration was de- 

 voted by turns to those brilliant Beetles and 

 to the marvellous discernment, the astonishing 

 sagacity of the Cerceris who had buried and 

 stored them away. Will you believe it, of 

 more than four hundred Beetles ^ that we dug 

 up, there was not one but belonged to the old 

 genus Buprestis ! Not even the very smallest 

 mistake had been made by the wise Wasp. 

 What can we not learn from this intelligent 

 industry in so tiny an insect ! What value 

 would not Latreille ^ have set upon this Cer- 

 ceris' support of the natural method ! 



* We will now pass to the different manoeuvres 

 of the Cerceris for establishing and victualling 

 her nests. I have already said that she chooses 

 ground with a firm, compact, and smooth sur- 

 face ; I will add that this ground must be dry 

 and fully exposed to the sun. She reveals in 

 this choice an intelligence, or, if you prefer, an 

 instinct, which one might be tempted to con- 

 sider the result of experience. Loose earth or 



' The 450 Buprestes unearthed belong to the following species : 

 Buprestis octoguttata; B. fasciata; B. pruni; B. tarda; B. 

 biguttata; B. 7nicans ; B. fiavomaculaia; B. chrysostigma ; and 

 B. novetntnaculafa. — Author's Note. 



2 Pierre Andre Latreille (1762- 1833), a French naturalist who 

 was one of the founders of entomological science. — Translator's 

 Note. 



