The Yellow-winged Sphex 63 



heavy. One cannot root up a village from its 

 foundations to transplant it elsewhere. 



We will return, therefore, to the Sphex-wasps 

 working on level ground, in ordinary soil, as 

 happens in by far the greater number of cases. 

 As soon as the burrow is dug, the chase begins. 

 Let us profit by the Wasp's distant excursions 

 in search of her game and examine the dwelling. 

 The usual site of a Sphex colony is, as I said, 

 level ground. Nevertheless, the soil is not so 

 smooth but that we find a few little mounds 

 crowned with a tuft of grass or wormwood, a 

 few cracks consolidated by the scanty roots of 

 the vegetation that covers them. It is in the 

 sides of these furrows that the Sphex builds 

 her dwelling. The gallery consists first of a 

 horizontal portion, two or three inches long 

 and serving as an approach to the hidden re- 

 treat destined for the provisions and the larvae. 

 It is in this entrance-passage that the Sphex 

 takes shelter in bad weather ; it is here that 

 she retires for the night and rests for a few 

 moments in the daytime, putting outside only 

 her expressive face, with its great, bold eyes. 

 Following on the vestibule comes a sudden 

 bend, which descends more or less obliquely to 

 a depth of two or three inches more and ends 

 in an oval cell of somewhat larger diameter, 

 whose main axis lies horizontally. The walls 



