Chapter xv 



THE FLY-HUNT 



After our list, in the last chapter, of the fare 

 on which the Bembex feed in the larval form, 

 it behoves us to seek the motive that induces 

 these Wasps to adopt a method of victualling 

 so exceptional among the digger-insects. Why, 

 instead of previously storing a sufficient quan- 

 tity of provisions on which the ^^'^ could be laid 

 — which would enable the mother to close the 

 cell immediately afterwards and never to return 

 to it — why, I ask, does she tie herself down for a 

 fortnight to this incessant, toilsome coming and 

 going from the burrow to the fields and from 

 the fields to the burrow, forcing her way each 

 time through the unstable sand, either to go 

 hunting or to bring the larva her latest capture ? 

 It is, first and foremost, a question of having 

 fresh victuals for her larva : an all-important 

 question, for the grub absolutely refuses any 

 high or tainted game. Like the grubs of the 

 other Diggers, it wants fresh meat and nothing 

 but fresh meat. 



271 



