I04 The Hunting Wasps 



because of the numerous excrescences or spines 

 with which they are armed. These different 

 shreds of skin dry up on the insect and are 

 removed afterwards by rubbing the legs. It is 

 not until the Sphex has acquired her full vigour 

 that she finishes her moulting by brushing, 

 smoothing and combing her whole body with 

 her tarsi. 



The way in which the wings come out of 

 their sheaths is the most remarkable part of 

 the sloughing. In their incomplete stump 

 stage they are folded lengthwise and are very 

 much compressed. It is easy to extract them 

 from their cases a little while before the normal 

 date of their appearance ; but then they re- 

 main permanently contracted and do not fill 

 out. On the other hand, when once the large 

 strip of skin to which the sheaths of the wings 

 belong is pushed back by the movements of 

 the abdomen, we see the wings come slowly 

 out of their cases and straightway, as they 

 become free, assume dimensions out of all pro- 

 portion to the narrow prison whence they 

 emerge. They are therefore the seat of an 

 abundant rush of vital fluids which swell them 

 and spread them out, and which, owing to the 

 inflation which they provoke, must be the chief 

 cause of the wings' emergence from their cases. 

 When newly expanded, the wings are heavy. 



