262 The Hunting Wasps 



mother's activity to satisfy the appetite of the 

 glutton, who crawls heavily along with his great 

 lumbering belly, amid the scorned leavings : 

 rejected wings and legs and horny abdominal 

 segments. You see her at every moment 

 returning with a recent capture, at every 

 moment setting out again upon the chase. In 

 short, the Bembex brings up her family from 

 day to day, without storing up provisions in 

 advance, just as the bird does, whicli feeds its 

 nestlings from hand to mouth. Of the many 

 proofs that are evidence of this method of 

 upbringing, a very singular method for a Wasp 

 who feeds her offspring on prey, I have already 

 mentioned the presence of the ^^^, in a cell 

 containing no provisions but one small Fly, 

 never more. And here is another one, which 

 can be verified at any time. 



Let us look into the burrow of a Wasp who 

 stocks her grubs' provisions in advance : if we 

 select the moment when the insect is going in 

 with its prey, we shall find in the cell a certain 

 number of victims, the commencement of a 

 larder, but never at that time a grub, nor even 

 an ^^'g, for this is not laid until the provisions 

 are quite complete. When the egg is laid, the 

 cell is closed and the mother does not return to 

 it. It is therefore only in burrows where the 

 mother's visits are no longer necessary that we 



