6o The Hunting PVasps 



with sand and finally abandoned by their 

 engineers. 



The Sphex seldom practises her industry 

 alone ; the site selected is usually exploited by 

 small bands of ten or twenty sappers or more. 

 One must have spent days in contemplating one 

 of these villages to form any idea of the restless 

 activity, the spasmodic haste, the abrupt move- 

 ments of those hard-working miners. The soil 

 is rapidly attacked with the rakes of the fore- 

 feet : canis instar, as Linnaeus says. No mis- 

 chievous puppy displays more energy in dig- 

 ging up the ground. At the same time, each 

 worker sings her glad ditty, which consists of a 

 shrill and strident noise, constantly broken off 

 and modulated by the vibrations of the wings 

 and thorax. One would think that they were 

 a troop of merry companions encouraging one 

 another in their work with a cadenced rhythm. 

 Meanwhile the sand flies, falling in a fine dust 

 on their quivering wings ; and the too bulky 

 gravel, removed bit by bit, rolls far away from 

 the workyard. If a piece seems too heavy to 

 be moved, the insect gets up steam with a 

 shrill note which reminds one of the woodman's 

 * Hoo ! ' Under the redoubled efforts of tarsi 

 and mandibles the cave soon takes shape ; the 

 insect is already able to dive into it bodily. 

 We then see a lively alternation of forward 



