2i8 The Hunting Wasps 



lived as larv^ae in the months of June and July 

 and display their talents as miners and hunters 

 in the following months of August, September 

 and October. 



Does a similar law apply to the Hairy Am- 

 mophila ? Does the same season witness the 

 insect's final transformation and its labours ? 

 It is very doubtful, for the Wasp occupied on 

 the work of the burrow at the end of March 

 would in that case have to complete her meta- 

 morphosis and to break out of her cocoon during 

 the winter, or at latest in February. The 

 severity of the climate at this period does not 

 allow us to accept such a conclusion. It is not 

 at a time when the bleak mistral howls for a 

 fortnight without intermission and freezes the 

 ground hard, it is not at a time when snow- 

 storms follow close upon that icy blast, that the 

 delicate transformations of the nymphosis are 

 able to take place or the insect to dream of 

 abandoning the shelter of its cocoon. It needs 

 the warm moisture of the earth under the 

 summer sun before it can leave its cell. 



If I knew the exact period at which the 

 Hairy Ammophila emerges from her native 

 burrow, this would help me greatly ; but, to 

 my intense regret, I do not know it. My notes, 

 collected day by day, with the lack of order 

 inevitable in a type of research that is con- 



