The Bembex 255 



inches below the ground ; in a Httle cell dug in 

 the cool, firm sand lies an ^^'^, perhaps a grub 

 for which the mother caters from day to day, 

 bringing it Flies, the unvarying food of the 

 Bembex in their first state. The mother has 

 to be able at any moment to enter the nest, as 

 she flies up carrying in her legs the nurseling's 

 daily portion of game, even as the bird of prey 

 enters its eyrie with the food for its young in its 

 talons. But, while the bird returns to a home 

 on some inaccessible ledge of rock, with no diffi- 

 culty to overcome but that of the weight and 

 encumbrance of the captured prey, the Bembex 

 has each time to undertake rough miner's work 

 and open up anew a gallery blocked and closed 

 by the mere fact that the sand gives way as the 

 insect proceeds. In that underground dwell- 

 ing, the only room with steady walls is the 

 spacious cell where the larva lives amid the 

 remnants of its fortnight's feast ; the narrow 

 corridor which the mother enters to reach the 

 fiat at the back or to come out and go hunting 

 collapses each time, at least in the front part 

 dug out of very dry sand, which repeated 

 exits and entrances make looser still. Each 

 time therefore that the Wasp goes in or out, 

 she has to clear herself a passage through the 

 debris. 



Going out presents no difficulty, even should 



