28 The Hunting Wasps 



of Weevils and one a diet of Buprestes. For 

 what singular reasons are the depredations of 

 these Wasps confined to such narrow limits ? 

 What are the motives for this exclusive choice ? 

 What inward likeness can there be between the 

 Buprestes and the Weevils, outwardly so entirely 

 dissimilar, that they should both become the 

 food of kindred carnivorous grubs ? Beyond a 

 doubt, there are differences of flavour between 

 this victim and that, nutritive differences which 

 the larvae are well able to appreciate ; but some 

 graver reason must overrule all such gastrono- 

 mic considerations and cause these curious 

 predilections. 



After all the admirable things that have been 

 said by Leon Dufour upon the long and wonder- 

 ful preservation of the insects destined for the 

 flesh-eating larvae, it is almost needless to add 

 that the Weevils, both those whom I dug up 

 and those whom I took from between the legs 

 of their kidnappers, were always in a perfect 

 state of preservation, though deprived for ever 

 of the power of motion. Freshness of colour, 

 flexibility of the membranes and the lesser 

 joints, normal condition of the viscera : all 

 these combine to make you doubt that the 

 lifeless body before your eyes is really a corpse, 

 all the more as even with the magnifying-glass 

 it is impossible to perceive the smallest wound ; 



