248 The Hunting IV asps 



bility beyond a faint quivering of the skin. 

 The power of moving and feehng is therefore 

 almost wholly abolished, as it needs must be 

 if the grub is to feed in safety on this monstrous 

 prey. Before placing it in the burrow, the Wasp 

 has turned it into an inert though still living 

 mass. 



I have been permitted to watch the Ammo- 

 phila operating with her scalpel on the sturdy 

 caterpillar, and never did the intuitive science of 

 instinct show me anything more exciting. With 

 a friend — soon, alas, to be snatched from me by 

 death ! — I was coming back from the plateau of 

 Les Angles to lay snares for the Sacred Beetle 

 and put his skill to the test, when we caught 

 sight of a Hairy Ammophila very busily em- 

 ployed at the foot of a tuft of thyme. We at 

 once lay down on the ground, close to where she 

 was working. Our presence did not frighten 

 the Wasp ; in fact, she came and settled on my 

 sleeve for a moment, decided that her two' 

 visitors were harmless, since they did not move, 

 and returned to her tuft of thyme. As an old 

 stager, I knew what that daring familiarity 

 meant : the Wasp's attent^'on was occupied 

 with a serious business. We would wait and 

 see. 



The Ammophila scratched the ground at the 

 foot of the plant, at the junction of root and 



