io8 The Hunting JVasps 



less experienced eye of the Sphex. Pray com- 

 pare the Cricket with the Locust : the first has 

 a large, round, stumpy head, is short and 

 thickset and black all over, with red stripes on 

 his hinder thighs ; the second is greyish in 

 colour, long and slim, with a small, tapering 

 head, leaps forward by suddenly unbending his 

 long hind-legs and continues this flight with 

 wings furled like a fan. Next compare both 

 of these with the Ephippiger, who carries his 

 musical instrument, two shrill cymbals shaped 

 like concave scales, on his back and who 

 waddles along with his pendulous belly, ringed 

 pale-green and buttercup-yellow and armed 

 with a long dirk. Place the three side by side 

 and you will agree with me that, to guide her 

 in choosing between such dissimilar species, 

 while still keeping to the same entomological 

 order, the Sphex must have an eye so expert 

 that no man — not your ordinary layman, but 

 a man of science — need be ashamed to own it. 



In the face of these singular predilections, 

 which seem to have had their limits laid down 

 for them by some master of classification, by 

 a Latreille, for instance, it becomes interesting 

 to investigate whether the Sphex-wasps that 

 are not natives of our country hunt game of 

 the same order. Unfortunately, information 

 on this point is scanty and, in the case of most 



