258 The H Minting PVasps 



wide as one's finger and straight or winding, 

 longer or shorter according to the nature and 

 the accidents of the ground, measures eight to 

 twelve inches. It leads to a single chamber, 

 hollowed in the damp sand, whose walls are 

 not coated with any kind of mortar likely to 

 prevent a subsidence or to lend a polish to 

 the rough surface. The ceiling will do, if it 

 can hold out while the larva is growing up ; 

 it does not matter what falls in afterwards, 

 when the larva is enclosed in its stout cocoon, 

 a sort of safe which we shall see it building. 

 The workmanship of the cell, therefore, is very 

 rustic : the whole thing is reduced to a rough 

 excavation, of no definite shape, with a low 

 roof and space enough to contain two or three 

 walnuts. 



In this retreat lies a piece of game, one only, 

 quite small and quite insufficient for the greedy 

 nursehng which it is meant to feed. It is a 

 golden-green Fly, a Green-bottle {LuciliaCasar),^ 

 who lives on putrid flesh. The Fly served up 

 as food is absolutely motionless. Is she quite 

 dead, or only paralysed ? This question will 

 be cleared up later. For the moment we will 

 note the presence, on the side of the game, of a 

 cylindrical egg, white, very slightly curved and 



* Cf. T/ie Life of the Fly, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by 

 Alexander Teixeira de Mattos : chap. ix. — Translator'' s Note. 



