The Bembex 253 



tions made in it without a subsequent collapse 

 of walls and roof. A blazing sun, a gloriously 

 blue sky, sandy slopes that yield without the 

 least difficulty to the strokes of the Wasp's 

 rake, game galore for the grub's food, a peaceful 

 site hardly ever disturbed by the foot of man : 

 all the good things are combined in this Bembex 

 paradise. Let us watch the industrious insect 

 at work. 



If the reader will sit with me under the 

 umbrella, or consent to share my Rabbit- 

 burrow, this is the sight which he is invited to 

 behold, at the end of July : a Bembex ifi. ros- 

 trata) arrives suddenly, I know not whence, and 

 alights, without preliminary investigations or 

 the least hesitation, at a spot which to my eyes 

 differs in no respect from the rest of the sandy 

 surface. With her fore- tarsi, which are armed 

 with rows of stiff hairs and suggest at the same 

 time a broom, a brush and a rake, she works at 

 clearing her subterranean dwelling. The insect 

 stands on its four hind-legs, holding the two at 

 the back a little wide apart, while the front ones 

 alternately scratch and sweep the shifting sand. 

 The precision and quickness of the performance 

 could not be greater if the circular movement of 

 the tarsi were worked by a spring. The sand, 

 shot backwards under the abdomen, passes 

 through the arch of the hind-legs, gushes like a 



