lo The Hunting JVasps 



a merely sandy soil would doubtless be much 

 easier to dig ; but then how is she to get an 

 aperture that will remain open for goods to 

 pass in and out, or a gallery whose walls will 

 not constantly be hable to fall in, to lose their 

 shape, to be blocked after a few days of rain ? 

 Her choice therefore is both sensible and nicely 

 calculated. 



* Our Burrowing Wasp digs her gallery with 

 her mandibles and her front tarsi, which are 

 furnished for this purpose with stiff spikes that 

 perform the office of rakes. The orifice must 

 not only have the diameter of the miner's 

 body : it must also be able to admit a capture 

 of large bulk. It is an instance of admirable 

 foresight. As the Cerceris goes deeper into the 

 earth, she casts out the rubbish : this forms 

 the heap which I likened above to a tiny mole- 

 hill. The gallery is not perpendicular, for then 

 it would inevitably become blocked up, owing 

 either to the wind or to other causes. Not far 

 from where it starts, it forms an angle ; its 

 length is seven or eight inches. At the end of 

 the passage the industrious mother establishes 

 the cradles of her offspring. These consist of 

 five separate cells, independent of one another, 

 arranged in a semicircle and hollowed into the 

 shape and nearly the size of an olive. Inside, 

 they are polished and firm. Each of them is 



