The Yellow-winged Sphex 67 



wings or by means of a clever deviation. The 

 Cricket is at last conveyed to his destination 

 and is so placed that his antennae exactly 

 touch the mouth of the burrow. The Sphex 

 then abandons her prey and descends hurriedly 

 to the bottom of the cave. A few seconds 

 later we see her reappear, showing her head 

 out of doors and giving a little cry of delight. 

 The Cricket's antennae are within her reach ; 

 she seizes them and the game is brought quickly 

 down to the lair. 



I still ask myself, without being able to find 

 a sufficiently convincing solution, the reason for 

 these complicated proceedings at the moment 

 when the Cricket is introduced into the burrow. 

 Instead of going down to her den alone, to re- 

 appear afterwards and pick up the prey left for 

 a time on the threshold, would not the Sphex 

 have done better to continue to drag the Cricket 

 along the gallery as she does in the open air, 

 seeing that the width of the tunnel permits it, 

 or else to go in first, backwards, and pull him 

 after her ? The various Predatory Wasps whom 

 I have hitherto been able to observe carry 

 down to their cells straight away, without pre- 

 liminaries, the game which they hold clasped 

 beneath their bellies with the aid of their 

 mandibles and their middle-legs. Leon Du- 

 four's Cerceris begins by complicating her pro- 



