154 T^^^^ H^inting IVasps 



* A male, indeed ! Is that a dinner for my 

 larvae ? What do you take them for ? ' 



What nice discrimination they have, these 

 dainty epicures, who are able to differentiate 

 between the tender flesh of the female and the 

 comparatively dry flesh of the males ! What 

 an unerring glance, which can distinguish at 

 once between the two sexes, so much alike in 

 shape and colour ! The female carries a sword 

 at the tip of her abdomen, the ovipositor 

 wherewith the eggs are buried in the ground ; 

 and that is about the only external difference 

 between her and the male. This distinguishing 

 feature never escapes the perspicacious Sphex ; 

 and that is why, in my experiment, the Wasp 

 rubbed her eyes, hugely puzzled at beholding 

 swordless a prey which she well knew carried a 

 sword when she caught it. What must not 

 have passed through her little Sphex brain at 

 the sight of this transformation ? 



Let us now watch the Wasp when, having 

 prepared the burrow, she goes back for her 

 victim, which, after its capture and the opera- 

 tion that paralysed it, she has left at no great 

 distance. The Ephippiger is in a condition 

 similar to that of the Cricket sacrificed by the 

 Yellow-winged Sphex, a condition proving for 

 certain that stings have been driven into her 

 thoracic ganglia. Nevertheless, a good many 



