The Yellow-winged Sphex 65 



only two or three days at most to each burrow 

 and its provisioning. No one will deny that 

 the active little creature has not a moment to 

 lose, when, in so short a time, she has to 

 excavate her den, to procure a dozen Crickets, 

 to carry them sometimes from a distance in 

 the face of innumerable difficulties, to store 

 them away and finally to stop up the burrow. 

 And, besides, there are days when the wind 

 makes hunting impossible, rainy days or even 

 merely grey days, which cause all work to be 

 suspended. One can readily imagine from this 

 that the Sphex is unable to give to her build- 

 ings the perhaps permanent solidity which the 

 Great Cerceres bestow upon their long galleries. 

 The latter hand down from generation to 

 generation their substantial dwellings, each 

 year excavated to a greater depth than the 

 last, galleries which threw me into a sweat 

 when I tried to inspect them and which gener- 

 ally triumphed over my efforts and my imple- 

 ments. The Sphex does not inherit the work 

 of her predecessors : she has to do everything 

 for herself and quickly. Her dwelling is but a 

 tent, hastily pitched for a day and shifted on 

 thQ morrow. As compensation, the larvae, who 

 have only a thin layer of sand to cover them, 

 are capable themselves of providing the shelter 

 which their mother could not create : they 



